Aldo Leopold came to Madison in 1924 to serve as Associate Director of the Forest Products Laboratory.  Later at the University of Wisconsin, Leopold served as the first Chair of Game Management (1933-1948) in the United States, establishing the field as an academic discipline and developing a field research program.  During his time in Madison he did the majority of his important writing including most of the essays for the posthumously published A Sand County Almanac. 

For information about Aldo Leopold’s pheasant research at the Lakeshore Nature Preserve and his political involvement in the acquisition and planning for the greater Picnic Point area see:

• Aldo Leopold and the Lakeshore Nature Preserve

For a bibliography of the article Aldo Leopold and the Campus Natural Areas, see:

• Aldo Leopold and the Preserve Bibliography

Aldo Leopold wrote A. M. Brayton, the publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal, in 1940 to protest a proposal to improve the University Bay area by dredging and filling the Bay to make a yachting club and harbor.  For a partial transcript of this letter, see:

• Aldo Leopold letter to A. M. Brayton, August 31, 1940

Leopold was a member of the University Bay Committee, which was appointed to develop a plan for the newly acquired Picnic Point property.  The University Bay Committee produced the following documents:

• Teaching Exhibits Which Should Be Installed in the University Bay Area, Arthur Hasler, 1944
   

• Wildlife in the Picnic Point Program, Aldo Leopold, 1944
   

• Preliminary Detailed Development Program for Picnic Point - University Bay Preserve, University Bay Committee, May 1944
   

• The Development of the Picnic Point – University Bay Preserve, Final report of the University Bay Committee, June 1944