173 R. Rozzi et al. (eds.), Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World: Values, Philosophy, and Action, Ecology and Ethics 1, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7470-4_14, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Creative interdisciplinary thinkers in the history of both ecology and ethics have ventured beyond their disciplinary boundaries and into the zone where they overlap. Prominent among these was Aldo Leopold. While serving as president of the Ecological Society of America in 1947, Leopold called for a “land ethic” that integrated insights from ecology, history, ethics, and aesthetics. Prompted especially by developments in science and technology following World War II, Leopold was part of a broader community of contemporaries concerned with these portentous changes. In retrospect, we can see Leopold’s special contribution as a defining moment in the discourse connecting conservation science, ethics, policy, and practice. That discourse continues, especially in emerging interdisciplinary fields, even as our critical environmental concerns renders the need for integrated thinking ever more apparent and immediate. Keywords Aldo Leopold • Ecological Society of America • Conservation • Policy • Ethics 14.1 Aldo Leopold, Ecology, and Ethics: 1947 At its annual meeting in December 1946, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) elected Aldo Leopold president. He was a somewhat surprising pick. Over the years Leopold had devoted a greater share of his professional energies to other scientific, professional, and conservation organizations. Although he had been Chapter 14 Aldo Leopold: Connecting Conservation Science, Ethics, Policy, and Practice Curt Meine C. Meine (*) Center for Humans and Nature and Aldo Leopold Foundation, P.O. Box 77, Baraboo, WI 53913-0077, USA e-mail: curtmeine@gmail.com