born Jan. 11, 1887, Burlington, Iowa, U.S.
died April 24, 1948, near Madison, Wis.
U.S. environmentalist.
After attending Yale University, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service (1909–28), mainly in the Southwest. In 1924 the country's first national wilderness area (Gila Wilderness Area in New Mexico) was created at Leopold's urging. From 1933 to 1948 he taught at the University of Wisconsin. A fervent campaigner for the preservation of wildlife and wilderness areas, he was a director of the Audubon Society from 1935 and became a founder of the Wilderness Society in the same year. His Game Management (1933) was followed in 1949 by the posthumous A Sand County Almanac , which eloquently called for the preservation of ecosystems. Read by millions, it strongly influenced the budding environmental movement.