An annual essay contest (in three age-specific tiers) for 6th – 12th grade students in New Mexico, the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest is an effective and inclusive way to engage the next generation of citizen leaders in an urgent conversation about how to address the changing realities brought about by climate disruption, biodiversity loss, growing freshwater demands, and other pressing global conservation issues.
It is effective not only because of how many people it touches (the student participants, their peers, their teachers, their parents and grandparents, and their larger communities), but also because it gives voice to the writers with the most moral authority to discuss these issues: the generation most vulnerable to the suffering that will be caused by inaction.
It is inclusive because the essays are judged anonymously based on the character of the content, without regard for the writer’s race, national origin, religion, or any other factor. The Aldo Leopold Writing Contest is an organic--because based on merit--way to diversify an essential conversation for all of society.
Our Mission
Aldo Leopold is the author of A Sand County Almanac in which he asserts his land ethic: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
The Leopold Writing Program builds on Aldo Leopold’s legacy as a writer by inspiring the next generation to participate in the evolution of environmental ethics through the written word. Our MISSION is to create an intergenerational network of leaders who, by virtue of their writing talent, have the potential to change the cultural story about the relationship between humans and Nature.
P.O. Box 40122