Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Nina Leopold Bradley remembered (1917-2011)

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May 26, 2011

By DENNIS KEENEY, first director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Nina Leopold Nina Leopold Bradley passed away May 25 at her home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. She was 93. Nina was the third of five children of Aldo and Estella. Aldo Leopold was the author of A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, one of the top-selling conservation books of all time. The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State was named after Aldo Leopold.

Nina was born in Madison and attended local schools near the University of Wisconsin campus where Aldo was a professor. It was during this time that Aldo purchased a worn-out farm on the Wisconsin River and restored it to health with the labor and love of the five children. She often recalled times with the close-knit family, especially at the Shack, an old chicken coop on the farm that they turned into a primitive living quarters. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin and went on to work in wildlife issues in several countries. When Nina and her second husband, Charles Bradley, moved to the Baraboo area in 1978, they directed ecological research and restoration at the Leopold Memorial Reserve. Under her inspired leadership the Reserve expanded in size and scope and is now a destination for ecologists and students. She received an honorary doctorate degree in environmental sciences from the University of Wisconsin in 1988 and has received many awards.

Nina was widely sought after for lectures on conservation and the Leopold Land Ethic and addressed many audiences in Iowa, including Ames, over the past two decades. Her strong delivery, punctuated with humor and love of people and the land, will be fondly remembered by all who heard her speak. We always will be indebted to her for the vision and hard work in establishing the Leopold Preserve.

A memorial will be established at a later date.

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