LEOPOLD LANDSCAPE ALLIANCE

The Leopold Landscape Alliance (LLA) is raising funds to expand our programs and to retire the mortgage on the Leopold Childhood Home in Burlington, Iowa.

We have a matching grant pledged!

Dean & Karen Hurliman have pledged a $5,000 dollar for dollar match, so your donation is doubled!  Every dollar you give becomes 2 until we reach the $5,000 mark.  A huge thanks to Karen & Dean for getting this fundraising campaign up and running.  Please consider making a donation on this site.  LLA keeps all money raised, and if are above $3,000, we are considered for extra merit grants awarded by Gannett Publishing.

Who Was Aldo Leopold?

World renowned conservationist, Aldo Leopold, spent his early years surrounded by people and places that would profoundly shape his future pursuits in the fields of conservation and ecology. He was born in his grandparents' house at 101 Clay Street, moved to 111 Clay for his childhood years, and then back into 101 Clay for his teen years and many later visits.  His family lived in both homes until the 1980's.

Leopold is known to many as the author of A Sand County Almanac (1949 & still in print), his collection of essays that describes his concept of a "Land Ethic".  

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we many begin to use it with love and respect."

These observations have influenced several generations of environmental advocates, conservation professionals, and private landowners around the world, to adopt and promote practices that enhance the relationship between humans and the land.   Green Fire, a documentary film on Aldo Leopold is available here (featuring an interview with LLA President, Steve  Brower on Leopold's childhood) .  (Click to read more).

Who We Are

LLA is an all volunteer, nonprofit organization.  We work to preserve Leopold's Burlington legacy, to ensure that future generations of Midwesterners grow up with an  appreciation of his contributions to science, literature, and environmental policy.  One of our early objectives was to purchase his adjacent childhood homes in Burlington, to reunite the original Leopold Compound, so important to Leopold's beginnings.   The property is now open to the public and serves as the hub of our environmental education activities.

Both houses have substantial mortgages and those monthly payments limit our ability to expand our education and habitat restoration programs.  Our long-range fundraising goal is to retire both mortgages and set up a maintenance fund for the future, but the immediate goal is to raise $150,000 to retire the mortgage on 111 Clay Street.  Lowering our mortgage payments effectively funds our activities.  Thanks to our volunteers and donors, the total of funds raised can and will go directly to the mortgage and programs.  To learn more about us and our programs visit our website (click here) and our Facebook page (click here for more).

Successes

Yellow and Red bordered properties owned by LLA

LLA is proud of our many successes, but the biggest has to be our purchases of the Leopold Childhood Home (111 Clay St.) and the Starker-Leopold House(101 Clay St.), thus reuniting the original family compound, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  In 6 years, we have raised over $600,000 toward that goal.  Most importantly, having the Compound enables us to host visiting students and conferences, who come to learn about Leopold's conservation message in the same surroundings that were once an influence on Aldo.  Another achievement is the creation of the Leopold School Outdoor Prairie Classroom; 2 acres of flowing prairie and stone seating that is utilized by teachers, students, neighbors and visitors.

 

Students studying at the Leopold School Prairie

Augsburg University Students exploring one of Aldo's tramping spots in Burlington.

 

 

 

 

 

Long Term Vision -- Landscape Scale Planning

LLA and our partnering organizations work together to promote landscape scale planning in Southeast Iowa and Western Illinois.  These efforts promote better land stewardship practices in a region where the relationship of  agriculture and the natural environment is often out of balance. 

We are forming an expanded coalition of land agencies & NGOs to manage and administer the property for the interpretation of Leopold's legacy.  LLA will then be one of several organizations highlighting Leopold's national level of significance.

In our modern world where protection of our planet is an every day struggle, Leopold's message provides us a firm foundation on which to build our conservation programs. LLA invites you to help us in our work.

Below:  Keep clicking on the 'more' button at the bottom of the Media Gallery for lots more photos!