Jan
30
Higher Standard?
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free…” –Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Those words, penned more than forty years ago by renowned conservationist and Iowa native, Aldo Leopold, ring truer today than ever before. With increasing advances in technology and a society that is growing ever more detached from the land, we’re perpetually faced with the question of what we want our ‘higher standard of living’ to be…and more importantly, what we want our children’s ‘higher standard of living’ to be. Do we want them to be constantly ‘plugged in’ like the current trends suggest? Nationwide, kids today spend more than six hours a day on some form of electronic device. Or would we rather see the next generation of conservationists and chapter leaders spending time outside and developing a knowledge of, and an appreciation for, the land that sustains not only the wildlife we hold so dear, but our own population as well.
“…For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.”
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Chris graduated from Iowa State University in 2005 with B.S. in Animal Ecology and a minor in Forestry. Soon after graduation, he joined the Pheasants Forever team as a Farm Bill Biologist in Northeast Missouri. It was during that time that Chris got involved with LEP by attending his first Educator Training at the 2007 National Workshop and the newly opened Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, WI. From there, Chris attended both 2007 and 2008 Pheasant Fests where he helped in the Youth Village.