Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac reveals the natural riches of Wisconsin’s sand counties and centers on a land ethic guided by love and respect for the land. He believed public conservation had little chance of success unless private individuals felt a strong personal responsibility for the land’s health. In 1935, acting on this philosophy, Leopold purchased a Sand County farm that had been worn out and abandoned, chosen for its lack of goodness and its lack of highway. There, the Leopold family spent twelve years transforming eighty acres of desolation into a showpiece of native Wisconsin habitat with abundant wildlife and a restored natural landscape, leaving an inspiring example of the land ethic in action.