Aldo Leopold's Birthplace and Childhood Homes in Burlington, Iowa are owned by the Leopold Landscape Alliance (101 & 111 Clay Street).  This re-unites the original Starker-Leopold Compound for education and researcher/writer/artist-in-residence programs.  In addition to using the Leopold family homes for interpretation, the Alliance works on landscape scale conservation in the Iowa/Illinois Mississippi River region. 

Events Coming Soon!

           Slide Talk by Roy R.Behrens   

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On Sunday, October 26, LLA is pleased to welcome retired professor Roy R. Behrens to present his program on Animal Camouflage. Professor Behrens, Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa is a writer, graphic designer, and design historian who taught art for 45 years. 

Please join us at Starr's Cave Loft at 3:30.  A reception for Professor Behrens will follow his program at the Starker-Leopold House.  All are welcome.

 

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                   Pam Sloan Art Exhibit

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We hope you all can join us on Friday October 3,  5 pm at the Art Center in Burlington to welcome our friend, Pam Sloan for the opening of her art exhibit, "Unearthed:  Tracing Aldo Leopold's Legacy through Time and Soil."  

Pam and Steve met at a Chicago Wilderness Congress during a break-out session about how art might help save wild places.  Pam had done an art series on 10 endangered species of the Chicago region, so Steve introduced Pam to Leopold and invited her to Burlington for an artist-in-residence retreat.   Pam has stayed at the Leopold Compound several times to bury her watercolor paper in Aldo's backyard.  After the fungi and bacteria have worked on the paper, Pam returns to dig it up.  The fungi leave wonderful colors and patterns on the paper and Pam then uses this paper to create her art.  You can see her 'Night Wolf' above.


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                Paul W Johnson Legacy

                                              

Bur. Green Fire Premier, Ed Whitmore Photo (50) - Copy 1mnb.jpg LLA lost a good friend and a giant in Iowa Conservation with the passing of Paul Johnson.  Paul was a former Iowa legislator, DNR Director and Chief of NRCS in the Dept. of Agriculture.  Paul was one of LLA's earliest supporters--he was confident that buying the Leopold houses and working on Landscape Scale Conservation in our area would be an important contribution to the Leopold Legacy. 

Now the Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy is excited to share that a published collection of Paul’s writings is set for release on October 2, 2025.  The book features a brief biography and a discussion of Paul’s ideas within the historical  and future         contexts of private lands conservation.                                                                                

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We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy by Paul W. Johnson, edited by Curt Meine can be preordered at Ice Cube Press already now!

Please join us at the events below over the coming months to learn more about the book.

Join the book launch event in Decorah, Iowa on October 7th, 6:30p.m. at The Landing Market, 211 College Drive.

Attend the Wisconsin 

Book Festival on October 25th at 1:30p.m. at the Madison Central Library. Curt Meine will discuss the book in a discussion with author Sonja Trom Eayrs (Dodge County, Incorporated), in a session on “The Fight for Rural America.”

Join the book launch event in Des Moines, Iowa on October 29th, 4:00p.m. at The Harkin Institute.

Join the book launch event in Ames,Iowa on October 30th, 6:00p.m. at the Ames Public Library.

Join the Iowa Nature Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on Nov 19-20 at the Drake University Olmstead Center.  The Johnson Center is a proud sponsor, and Curt Meine will speak about the book during the 12:15-1:30p.m. luncheon on Nov 19.

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     Steve, Paul and Curt at the Greenfire premiere in Burlington 

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The Leopold Landscape Alliance

To honor LeGoldfinch-&-Coreopsis-Seed-.jpgopold's background here, we have created a non-profit organization to help private landowners with "land health" concepts and habitat restoration in the bi-state region of Iowa and Illinois.

While we rely on Aldo's legacy to guide our  projects, we also celebrate the conservation legacy of his siblings, parents, and the Starker grandparents.  Connecting the humanities to nature and aesthetics was a core part of the Starker-Leopold home ground education. 

Our Vision:

To see the Burlington area become a center for the celebration of Leopold’s ideas—connecting working landscapes and wild land recovery.

Our Mission:

1.  To support Aldo Leopold's "Land Ethic" by drawing attention to the Leopold childhood homes and natural areas in IA and IL that contributed to the development of his early years and later philosophy.

2.  To enhance, restore or acquire land for conservation projects within the watersheds of IA and IL along Pools 18 and 19 of the Mississippi River.

 

Our first step was to acquire Aldo Leopold's boyhood homes where he lived when he was first exposed to the natural world and encouraged by his family to explore the nearby wild lands. The Leopold Houses projected uses include facilities for 1) guest residence for Leopold researchers, artists and Leopold family visiting Burlington.  2)  interpreting Leopold family conservation history.  3) collection point for conservationists to gather natural science information for the region.

The Burlington area could become a center, along with Wisconsin and the Southwest, for the celebration of Leopold's philosophy--connecting working landscapes and wild land recovery.

Celebrating Leopold in the Iowa-Illinois bi-state region will have long range benefits for economic development and tourism. Conservationists from around the world are interested in Leopold's writings and seek out places where his experience and values continue to be relevant in today's changing culture and increasing need for environmental awareness.

 

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The Leopold Compound

Our thanks to all our generous donors who made the property purchases a reality, and to previous homeowners, Carl & Billie Hays and Mary Shier, for being such great caretakers and supporters.    Many individuals and foundations have insured that the 'Leopold Park' neighborhood where Aldo grew up will continue to tell the story of the Starker-Leopold family's conservation legacy and interpret the roots of Aldo's 'Land Ethic'.

LLA was able to retire the mortgage on 111 Clay St. in 2021.  Now we are in the second phase of fund-raising to raise $400,000 toward retiring the mortgage on 101 Clay St. and creating a maintenance fund for the 'Compound', while continuing the development of our active programs such as the Children's Nature Library and Landscape Management Program for private landowners.

To protect the historic environment of Aldo's youth we are focusing on conservation education programs for small groups.  This allows visitors to enjoy a "moment" where Aldo started on his life's journey.   

 Uses for the properties include:                                                                                

1.  An Environmental Studies and Researcher/Writer/Artist-in-Residence Program--studying the natural sciences and the humanities, utilizing Leopold's writings to investigate the relationship between humans and nature in today's society.  The residency program will be open to individuals, colleges, agencies and non-governmental organizations. 

2.  Conservation education and activities for children and their families.

3.  Interpretation of the Starker-Leopold family conservation legacy on the home grounds and in the region where Leopold began to realize the importance of the biotic community to include people. 

4.  A collection center for information and conservation help for private land owners in the region.

The Compound will serve as a hub that can further conservation projects in Leopold's home ground of Iowa and Illinois.   Conservationists from across the country recognize the significance of Leopold's Burlington roots and are enthusiastic about the project.

Leopold is especially relevant to this region because it is our landscape that set him on the path to his "Land Ethic."  The changing culture for todays' children needs the same stabilizing force of nature that kept Aldo grounded during the rapid cultural change at the turn of the last century.

Surprises in nature and discovering the feeling of freedom in the outdoors leads to a renewal of the human spirit.  Throughout Aldo's career he drew strength from memories of his childhood tramps and continued to seek out new adventures, using these reflections to stay invigorated.

The Historic Leopold Houses fund-raising project is not so much about the past, as it is understanding the sources of Aldo's success.  Leopold's life can help guide us and our children to a better and more balanced future.  The Starker-Leopold home compound provides an important opportunity for more detailed interpretation of Aldo's "Ethics and Esthetics" approach to humans as a part of the biotic communities.

The Starker-Leopold values evident at the family compound give conservationists and environmental historians a direct connection with the beginnings of the new conservation era Leopold helped develop in the early 20th century. Buying the Leopold boyhood homes is the first step toward larger landscape scale conservation projects.

 

 

Aldo Leopold, Burlington's Native Son

Aldo Leopold, world renowned conservationist was born and raised in Burlington, Iowa where he developed a love of the outdoors.  He is widely known as the author of A Sand County Almanac (1949).  This collection of observations and essays has become a conservation classic and is still in print with over three million copies sold.  Leopold is most famous for his expression of the idea he called a "Land Ethic." 

Much of the bCarl-&-Aldo-smaill.jpgasis for his concern about wild places and human values grew from childhood discoveries in the Burlington area--the bluffs, rocky ravines, islands, bottomlands on both sides of the Mississippi and the sand prairie-black jack oak savannah of Illinois.   Leopold's extraordinary family grounded him in the humanities and connected these arts to nature.  For a discussion on how Leopold's early sources of family and wild places stimulated his imagination, contact the Alliance for a program on Leopold' s Burlington years.  (Visit the Contact Us page.)

We hope the Burlington Leopold story will add another layer to your study of conservation.  Perhaps knowing more about Leopold's childhood will open new doors of understanding and help explain the need for nature in our lives.

Aldo and Father Carl at Crystal Lake

For more information on Leopold's career visit our friends at the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, WI or check out the Leopold documentary at  www.GreenFireMovie.com.

                                   

"The Land Ethic was the end result of a long process of experience and reflection.  In many ways it was the culmination of his life journey."   -- Curt Meine, Green Fire