Scope and Contents:
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) was an influential forester and environmental writer, most famous for his A Sand County Almanac (1949). After graduating from Yale University's school of forestry, Leopold worked for the U.S. Forest Service and, from 1933 to 1948, was Professor of Game Management at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In 1929, the Game Restoration Committee of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute hired Leopold to study and report on game resources in Illinois. Although he did not survey the entire state, his report outlines major elements of the state's natural environment: soil conditions, patterns of land usage, distribution of plants and trees, and stocks of various game animals such as pheasant, quail, and rabbit. It also summarizes the activities of state and federal conservation agencies.
In addition to the text of the eighty-page report, the study features numerous charts, maps, and photographs (including two pictures of stripped coal lands near Danville). The report was donated to the Library in 2005 by University of Illinois alumnus Christopher Martinez, who found the typed manuscript among his father's belongings. Another copy is included among Leopold's papers at the University of Wisconsin Archives.