The story of a boy, a book, and the Leopold bench

Native Iowan and conservationist Aldo Leopold's words have inspired many over the half-century since his death and publication of the landmark A Sand County Almanac. Thanks to the ideals and energy of a New Jersey Boy Scout, Leopold's care for the land is alive and well today in an effort that started with a visit to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

It was the summer of 1998 when Lew Gorman III and his son, Lew IV, traveled to Iowa State University to attend a Boy Scouts of America Order of the Arrow conference. While walking the campus, the Gormans learned that earlier that spring the Leopold Center had planted an oak in front of Curtiss Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of Aldo Leopold's death.

Father and son were fascinated by the story and visited the Center, where they admired a bench made with Leopold's design. They left with a special edition of A Sand County Almanac and construction plans for the bench.

The Leopold oak
Fast forward to December, 1999, when then-Center director Dennis Keeney received an e-mail from the elder Gorman complimenting him on an essay, "Nurturing the New Oak." In the essay, Keeney bid farewell to the Center after 11 years and reflected on the significance of the oak sapling taking root at ISU. "My son, Lewis IV, was 14 at the time [of our visit] and I didn't realize the impact this visit had on him," Gorman told Keeney.

ISU visit inspires project
As a result of the experience, the younger Lewis began work toward one of Scouting's most prestigious awards, the William T. Hornaday Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. It is named after a pioneering conservationist (1854-1937) who helped found the National Zoo in Washington D.C., served as chief taxidermist for the Smithsonian Institution, and wrote more than 100 books encouraging Scouts to work on behalf of natural resources. According to Leopold biographer Marybeth Lorbiecki, one of Hornaday's avid readers was Aldo Leopold himself.

One of the four required conservation projects Lewis undertook was restoring a badly eroded trail at a local Scout camp in Pine Hill, New Jersey. He redesigned the trail on the contour to promote access to a nearby lake, and put Leopold benches on the waterfront at the end of the trail. When asked what the name of the trail should be, his answer was certain: "Since I started the conservation project, I knew that I wanted to name the trail after Aldo Leopold."

During the restoration process, Lewis IV consulted a soil scientist, who advised placing holes in the compacted and eroded trail before restoration to allow rainwater to drain naturally. Accordingly, soil plugs were punched each foot along the trail and filled with wood chips. Tons of wood chips were then laid to bring the trail up to its original grade. The trail was completed the day before a hurricane dumped seven inches of rain on the trail within a 24-hour period. The renovated trail had no erosion.

Lewis plans to present a copy of A Sand County Almanac to the campmaster at Pine Hill, where future generations of Scouts can read about the man for whom the sturdy trail and simple yet comfortable benches are named. And perhaps they, too, will be inspired by the Aldo Leopold land ethic that endures over the decades.

Building your own bench
The bench was used at "The Shack" on the central Wisconsin farm that Leopold and his family restored to land health. Free plans for this easy-to-build bench can be found on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/greenacres/wildones/wo27bench.htm. Several outdoor furniture resources on the Internet also offer finished versions of the bench.