What was it like growing up in the Aldo Leopold family?
I did not really understand how special my family is to me until having moved away for college and returning home as an adult. As time passes, I grow an ever-greater appreciation for my family. I recall my grandmother, Nina Leopold Bradley, showing me my first woodcock “sky dance”, their spring courtship behavior. She of course grew up censusing these birds on the Leopold property surrounding the shack where the family spent weekends and holidays. I followed her instruction on how to run and dive under the bird while it is in flight to see how near I could get to its landing spot as they often return to the same spot after an elaborate flight. It was experiences like this that were very influential and that are perhaps becoming more uncommon as gadgets become ever more entertaining and our connections with land more fragmented. While growing up I knew the importance of Aldo Leopold to my family and perhaps suspected his importance to Wisconsin, but in reality thought that my family was
