Aldo Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa in 1887, the eldest of four children. He received a Master of Forestry from Yale University in 1909. After earning his degree he went on to serve for 19 years in the U.S. Forest Service. Leopold worked in the southwest (New Mexico and Arizona) until he was transferred in 1924 to the Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1928 he quit the Forest Service to do independent contract work which primarily consisted of doing wildlife game surveys throughout the country. In 1933 he was appointed Professor of Game Management in the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Leopold taught at the University of Wisconsin until his death in 1948.
Aldo Leopold is best known as the author of A Sand County Almanac (1949), a volume of nature sketches and philosophical essays recognized as one of the enduring expressions of an ecological attitude toward people and the land. The notion of a land ethic was rooted in Leopold's perception of the environment, and that perception was deepened and clarified throughout his life. He was an internationally respected scientist and conservationist instrumental in formulating policy, promoting wilderness, and building ecological foundations for two Twentieth Century professions, forestry and wildlife ecology.
The Surface Mining Control & Reclamation Act of 1977 establishes a program for regulating surface coal mining and reclamation activities. It establishes mandatory uniform standards for these activities on state and federal lands, including a requirement that adverse impacts on fish, wildlife and related environmental values be minimized. The Act creates an Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund for use in reclaiming and restoring land and water resources adversely affected by coal mining practices.