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Show 302. ECOLOGICAL CONSCIENCE A harmonious r e l a t i o n to land i s more i n t r i c a t e and of more consequence t o c i v i l i z a t i o n , than the h i s t o r i a n s of progress seem t o r e a l i z e . C i v i l i z a t i o n i s not, as they often assume, the enslavement of a s t a b l e and constant earth. It i s the s t a t e of mutual and interdependent cooperation between human a n i m a l s , o t h e r animals, p l a n t s, and s o i l s , which may be d i s r u p t e d a t any moment by the failure of any of them. - Aldo Leopold, "The Conservation Ethic" Aldo Leopold was h e i r to the kind of t h i n k i n g Muir established in the mid 1 8 7 0 ' s . C e r t a i n l y Leopold was more knowledgeable about many a s p e c t s of the e c o l o g i c a l community in American f o r e s t s , and he thought long and hard about the significant r e l a t i o n s h i p between p r e d a t o r and prey. Leopold had the advantages of over s i x t y years of r e s e a r c h by e c o l o g i s t s, And he knew in a d d i t i o n t h a t the d i s c i p l i n e of f o r e s t r y as practiced in Europe did not o f f e r the hope of r e s t o r i n g f o r e s ts to their primeval wholeness, as Muir had hoped in the 1870's. But Leopold followed the s p i r i t Muir had begun t o a r t i c u l a t e. When he concluded h i s essay on "The Conservation Ethic" saying, "The stampede i s an a t t r i b u t e of animals i n t e r e s t ed solely in g r a s s , " he was echoing language and a t t i t u d e s Muir had expressed n e a r l y s i x t y y e a r s e a r l i e r . What could one expect of tame men, "who a r e slow to suspect wild sheep of seeing more than g r a s s ?" The stampede had been going on for n e a r l y t h i r t y years in the West when Muir w i t n e s s e d i t . At f i r s t Americans stampeded f°r gold and s i l v e r , but by the mid 1870's they were d e s t r o y i ng |