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HistoryIn 2000, the Friends of Scenic Lodi Valley decided to celebrate the first weekend in March by organizing the community to read aloud, cover to cover, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. Tom Heberlein, a Professor of Rural Sociology and Environmental Studies at UW-Madison and a Lodi resident, was the Friends of Scenic Lodi Valley team leader for this first Lodi Reads Leopold event. The reading began at noon at the Lodi Woman’s Club Public Library and ended at 10:00 p.m. in a local café. Nina Leopold Bradley was among those who were the first to hear A Sand County Almanac read aloud and she remarked, “I never realized how humorous my father was.” There was something special about hearing those words read aloud in a group. While A Sand County Almanac is well known in the academic community, it is less familiar to the general public who make decisions about how to use the land. By highlighting A Sand County Almanac and Leopold in Lodi, the Friends of Scenic Lodi Valley wanted to help build a community land ethic. The event has grown in eight years from a handful of participants to nearly two hundred readers and listeners. During the 4th Annual Lodi Reads Leopold George Meyer, former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and a reader at the event, wondered aloud why every community in the state wasn’t “reading Leopold” that weekend. State Representative Mark Miller (another reader at the event) shouted from the audience, “I’ll introduce that legislation!” In March 2003 Governor James Doyle signed a bill making the first weekend in March Aldo Leopold Weekend. It all began in Lodi and is now continuing throughout the state: in 2007, Leopold Weekend events took place more than 20 locations across Wisconsin, as well as three other states. We’re proud of what we started and look forward to seeing how the event grows in years to come. We think Aldo would be pleased. Prior years:
2003 Lodi Reads Leopold |