The Round River Essay, Research Paper

In the essay the “Round River” Aldo Leopold was trying to say many different ideas that related together in the fight for nature preservation and restoration.

One of Aldo Leopolds main points in his essay was that we as humans can not replace, rebuild nature. So before it goes to far, and get’s to destroyed we must restore it. As people though we can only do so much and we can’t restore it with foreign plants, but only the natural plants that originated there. So if we destroy an area’s ecosystem then we can never restore, and replenish it to its original state and land consistency. In his essay Leopold said that “we have radically modified the biotic system because we had to. Food chains now begin with corn, and alfalfa instead of oaks and bluestem, flows through cows, hogs, and poultry instead of into elk, deer, and grouse.” Therefore we can never restore damage done but only reroute it.

Another point in his essay is that all land is one mechanism and if you damage one part then you intern damage or affect another part. So we cannot fully preserve land because our scientists cannot recognize all of the earth’s mechanisms. For instance if you kill the wolves then the rabbit and deer

population may rise without as high of predation.

Another major point in his essay is that if we are going to prevent a species from extinction we must do it everywhere not just in one specific place. The worlds whale population is not going to rise if only the United States bans whale hunting. And if we don’t enforce poaching laws and regulations. This also refers to if you tamper with one organism you affect a lot more. If we kill all the whales not only can we not use them but larger sea predators like sharks can’t either. So they will be forced to feed on smaller sea life and then damage our sea food supply by eating other fish that we eat. So we as a whole must conserve on our supplies of natural objects with our exponentially growing population.

We are also over concerned with now compared to the future which I believe to be more important . The world is to caught up in todays tinkerings to think about the end effects. Leopold stated “that with each substitution of a tame plant or animal for a wild one, or an artificial waterway for a natural one is accompanied by a readjustment in the circulating system of the land.” We do not foresee or understand these things unless it affects us .

The essay has defiantly stood the test of time well, or why else would I have to read and write about it now? All of his major points in the essay have proved themselves true and are still being referred to by scientists and naturalists today.