SWCS Publishes Book: Relationship with the Land

The Soil and Water Conservation Society has released a new book: Relationship with the Land. This collection of essays was edited by Mark Anderson-Wilk.

“Though we still live from the land, as we always have and always must, we now live with the land less than ever before,” Wendell Berry, “Living with the Land” chapter.

Cherish the work started by conservation fathers Aldo Leopold and Hugh Hammond Bennett, learn about the growth of conservation ethic, and challenge yourself to consider future conservation implications, all by reading one book. Relationship with the Land includes a collection of the most thought-provoking articles that have appeared in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation within the last 60 years, as well as two invited essays that bring an international perspective and a controversial idea to the conservation conversation.

Relationship with the Land includes four sections:
· Hugh Hammond Bennett and the Soil Conservation Movement
· Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic
· Development of Conservation Thought on Land Stewardship and Natural Resource Values
· The Future of the Conservation Land Ethic

“Each of us has the right to own and enjoy property, whether that property is a dollar bill, a book, or an acre of farmland…We cannot use the dollar to pay for commission of a crime, or the book to hit somebody over the head, or that farmland in a way that diminishes the private or public values of our neighbors,” Neil Sampson, “Achieving Public Values on Private Land” chapter.

“While the claim of the moral “high ground” on the basis of values may be personally gratifying, it has diverted needed attention away from understanding why land owners may be unwilling or unable to act on these values.” Pete Nowak, “Of What Value are Values in Resource Management?”

Relationship with the Land is now available at the SWCS Online Store.
ISBN 978-0-9769432-6-6