Register Now for Aldo Leopold Centenial Celebration 2009 Event at NHCC

February 13-14, 2009
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Click for FLYER (pdf)

As the opening event in the Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration 2009, this “cultural conversation” conference is intended to foster creative discussion about the Southwestern roots of Leopold’s land ethic, the roots of an environmental ethic in Hispanic and Native American traditions, and the historic and potential connections among them. The event is open to the public and welcomes participants from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and perspectives.

The program will include keynote speaker Gary Paul Nabhan, a Lebanese-American scholar exploring the challenge of ethics in a time of global change, a look at the roots of a land ethic in the Southwest from Native American, Hispanic, and Leopold perspectives, and a series of four panel discussions on the following topics, each with panelists from varied cultural traditions and viewpoints.

PANELS

The Local & the Global
Aldo Leopold composed his landmark essay “The Land Ethic” in the late 1940s, at a time when environmental concern was becoming global in scope. The land ethic has since helped to undergird an emerging global environmental ethic, even while emphasizing the need for revitalizing local connections to, and within, our landscapes. This panel will explore connections between local and global conservation challenges playing out in the Southwest and beyond.

Sustainability Across the Landscape
Sustainability aims to build healthy long-term relationships between people and land across cultural boundaries and landscapes, from wildlands to working lands to suburban and urban neighborhoods. Our landscapes are interconnected by food, water, energy, and complex community and economic ties. This panel will examine the challenges of sustainability.

Community Engagement
Over the last two decades, community-based approaches to environmental stewardship have taken root in settings from rural to urban. This movement has deep roots in Leopold’s own work on watershed health in the Southwest and Midwest. This panel will explore community-based projects and their contributions to the still-evolving land ethic.

Climate Change & Culture
With the reality of anthropogenic climate change now setting in, we face a cultural challenge unprecedented in human history. In his early work in the Southwest, Leopold had some inkling of these large-scale, long-term environmental changes. His land ethic now provides an essential part of the broader ethical foundation we must all create as a “thinking community.” This panel will address this great challenge from historical, scientific, and philosophical perspectives.

Friday Evening Activities
Join us Friday evening for a special night of music, poetry, storytelling, and film! We will feature Aldo Leopold’s daughter, Estella, telling stories about her family’s Hispanic roots. Noted folk singer Cipriano Vigil and family will offer traditional Hispanic music of northern New Mexico, including some favorites of the Leopold family. Filmmakers Steve Dunsky and Dave Steinke will show a short preview of a new documentary film on Aldo Leopold and share their experiences filming the Leopold legacy. And more, including Malpais Borderlands rancher-poet Drum Hadley and Native American stories and poems.

Register
Registration is only $15, plus optional meals. Click to register online by credit card, or a registration form that you can print and mail or fax to us. If you have registration questions, please contact Jeannine Richards at jeannine@aldoleopold.org or 608.355.0279 ex. 25.

The event is co-sponsored by the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Additional funding provided by the New Mexico Humanities Council through the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Humans and Nature, the University of New Mexico, and the U.S. Forest Service.

S c h e d u l e

Friday, 13 February

• 1:00 PM Welcome
• 1:15 PM Keynote: Ethics in a time of Global Change, Gary Paul Nabhan
• 1:45 PM Roots of a Land Ethic in the Southwest: Susan Flader, Gregory Cajete, and Estevan Arellano
• 4:00 PM Panel I: The Local & the Global
• 5:30 PM Reception and buffet dinner (optional)
• 7:30 PM Film, stories, poetry and music from Southwestern traditions

Saturday, 14 February

• 8:00 AM Welcome
• 8:15 AM Panel II: Sustainability across the Landscape
• 10:15 AM Panel III: Community Engagement
• 11:45 AM Buffet Lunch (optional)
• 1:00 PM Panel IV: Climate Change & Culture
• 2:45 PM Break-out group discussions
• 4:00 PM Closing Round Table
• 5:00 PM Adjourn