“Reading the Forest Landscape” by Aldo Leopold

Please read the first paragraph. How does it connect with Bonaventure's Step 1 and the Intellectual Journey?

What is the “value” of the diseases to which trees are subject (105-6)? What is he getting at when he says this makes his woodlot a “mighty fortress”? What does it tell us about the essence of the world? Are you able to relate what Leopold is doing here to the Bonaventurian theme of this step?

What story do the actions of the animals in Leopold’s land tell? (107-8) How did he learn this? Does it reminds you of some ideas from the the Bonaventurian vision? Of the methods used in contemporary science?

What is the significance of the shovel and pines in the final section of this extract from Leopold’s almanac?

What do these brief episodes show us, if anything at all, about the intellectual journey?