News
Updated Nov 15.2019

Call for Entries - 2020 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest

Annual Aldo Leopold Writing Contest Invites NM Students to Submit Essays
Albuquerque Native & Nobel Laureate William D. Nordhaus to Present Contest Awards 

The 2020 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest encourages New Mexico students in grades 6-12 to submit original essays in response to the following question:  How might reuniting our understanding of “ecology” and “economy” help solve today’s environmental problems?  

Cash prizes will be awarded to the winning essayists in each of three grade categories: 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12. Submissions are accepted through February 21, 2020. 

This year’s essay topic honors the work of both Aldo Leopold, considered by many to be the father of wildlife ecology, and William D. Nordhaus, an Albuquerque native and the 2018 Nobel Laureate in Economics. Nordhaus will present the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest Awards to the winning student essayists, and also deliver the 2020 Annual Leopold Lecture. 
In the 1970s, long before many economists were thinking about climate issues, Nordhaus began work on creating a quantitative model that describes the global interplay between the economy and climate. Nordhaus is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Yale and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

CLICK HERE for the COMPLETE PROMPT along with the ENTRY FORM.

​Please join us at the Annual Leopold Lecture & Writing Contest Award Ceremony - April 27, 2019

April 19, 2019

3RD ANNUAL LEOPOLD LECTURE and WRITING CONTEST AWARD CEREMONY
THE PARABLE OF CHACO
1 PM SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2019 AT THE HIBBEN CENTER ON THE UNM CAMPUS

FEATURING David Stuart, an internationally recognized anthropologist whose most cited books are Prehistoric New Mexico, Anasazi America, The Ancient Southwest, and Pueblos People of the Pajarito Plateau. He earned his PhD in anthropology from the University of New Mexico and served many years at UNM as associate provost for academic affairs. Dr. Stuart served as acting president of the School for Advanced Research (SAR) and has been a lecturer at SAR and in Edinburgh, London, Mexico City, and at the Sorbonne in Paris. 

The Annual Leopold Lecture features a distinguished environmental thinker who inspires audiences to explore today's critical environmental issues. Each lecturer joins the growing network of writers and respected leaders who have been touched by the Leopold Writing Program. The Annual Leopold Lecturer also presents the awards to the 6th-12th grade winners of the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest, completing the intergenerational nature of the Leopold Writing Program. 

7th Annual Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency 2018

TRES PIEDRAS – For the seventh year, the Leopold Writing Program will open up Aldo and Estella Leopold’s home, Mi Casita, for month-long residencies and a public presentation in Taos by established and emerging writers in the environmental and ecological fields.

Three writers will come to Mi Casita in May, July and October, respectively, this year. Each will make a presentation at the Harwood Art Museum as part of a community outreach agreement between the Leopold Writing Program and the USDA Forest Service, which owns Mi Casita.

The LWP 2018 Residents are:

In May, Matthew Barnes, a land manager who believes wildlife and domestic livestock can co-exist. He calls for “cultivating wildness and whole-systems resilience on ranches and public land,” a philosophy he has put to work as a manager of several ranches in the West and plans to enhance with writing during his residency.

In July, Matthew Jones, an adjunct professor in English in Cincinnati. His focus during the month of July at Mi Casita will be a book of essays. The essays center on Jones’ belief that “scientific observation and literary storytelling can be used as a means of constructing a living record of the relationship between humans and natural spaces.”

In October, Laura Pritchett, a playwright and freelance writer who grew up on a farm in Colorado. During her residency in October, she will work on turning her play, Dirt: A Terra Nova Tradition, into a novel and finding a wider audience for both. Her work ranges all across the Western naturalist spectrum, from “climate change to wolves, from fracking to bears.”

The Aldo and Estella Leopold Residency began in 2012 as an inspiring retreat for writers to reflect and create in the home where Aldo and Estella Leopold first lived as newlyweds in 1912. Residents spend one month at Mi Casita and receive a $500 stipend to help defray travel and living expenses. At the conclusion of their stay, residents give a public presentation of their work in Taos.

The Residency is a New Mexico-based initiative sponsored by the Leopold Writing Program in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service. The Leopold Writing Program builds on Aldo Leopold’s legacy as a writer by inspiring the next generation to participate in the evolution of environmental ethics through the written word. 

​For more information:  RESIDENCY

​Leopold Writing Program Announces Winners of Leopold Writing Contest
​March 22, 2018

Albuquerque, NM – On April 21st, four students from around the state will be honored for their winning entries in the 2018 Leopold Writing Contest at an awards ceremony at the Luna Mansion in Los Lunas. Each winner will be awarded $500 and an additional $250 will be awarded in books to the school library of the overall best essayist. These essays will be read at the event on April 21st and will be posted on the Leopold Writing Program website.

The Leopold Writing Program congratulates the 2018 Leopold Writing Contest winners:

Akshay Warrier  (Overall winner), grade 11, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque

Peter Watson, grade 11, Los Alamos High School, Los Alamos

Elijah Russell, grade 8, Jimmy Carter Middle School, Albuquerque

Seth Almanzar, grade 6, Rio Rancho Middle School, Rio Rancho

This year’s contest asked students to “Tell the story of a local land ethic leader”. Akshay Warrier wrote about his father as his local land ethic leader. Peter Watson wrote about Craig Martin who organized the Los Alamos community to plant trees in the aftermath of the Cerro Grande and Las Conchas fires and helped found the Los Alamos Youth Conservation Corps. Elijah Russell wrote about his grandfather, Benjamin Romero Rivera, a Socorro County farmer and leader of the Sevilleta Land Grant Association. Seth Almanzar wrote about Josh Nelson, a guide at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

It was up to each student to interpret what a local land ethic leader means to them in the context of A Sand County Almanac (1949), a classic in Western literature that articulates Leopold’s Land Ethic: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” Leopold defined the “biotic community” as the soils, waters, plants, and animals—including humans—that collectively make up “the land”.

The Aldo Leopold Writing Contest—now entering its 10th year—is sponsored by the Leopold Writing Program in collaboration with the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico. The Leopold Writing Program builds on Leopold’s legacy as a writer by inspiring the next generation of environmental leaders to participate in the evolution of land ethics through the written word.   

2017 Annual Lecture by Barry Lopez
​Opening Remarks by John Byram

April 23, 2017

Read the opening remarks from our Secretary, John W. Byram   CLICK HERE

​KUNM Interview of Tony Anella by Spencer Beckwith

​April 18, 2017

Click the play button below to hear more about The Leopold Writing Program and our First Annual Leopold Lecture. 

Press Release: Inaugural Leopold Lecture to feature noted author Barry Lopez
February 23, 2017

Barry Lopez, an author whose writings are recognized for their humanitarian and environmental concerns, will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural Leopold Lecture on Sunday, April 23.

The lecture program, inspired by the work of environmentalist and conservationist Aldo Leopold, will be held 2 p.m. at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St. SW, Albuquerque. Admission is free but donations to support the nonprofit Leopold Writing Program are appreciated.

Lopez, who lives on the upper McKenzie River in Oregon, is the author of 14 works of fiction and non-fiction, and has traveled through more than 80 countries in the course of his work. His books include Of Wolves and Men, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Arctic Dreams, a National Book Award winner.

He is the recipient of numerous literary and cultural honors, including Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundation fellowships.

“We are especially honored to have Barry Lopez, a National Book Award-winning author give the inaugural Leopold Lecture,” Anthony Anella, founder and president of the Leopold Writing Program, said. “The mission of the Leopold Writing Program is to create an intergenerational network of leaders who, by virtue of their writing talent, have the potential to change the cultural story about the relationship between humans and nature.”

Anella noted that in celebration of the program’s intergenerational mission, Lopez will present awards to the four winners of the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest for students in grades 6-12 prior to his lecture.

Aldo Leopold, who had close ties to New Mexico, was an author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist who lived from 1887 to 1948.

He is the author of A Sand County Almanac, in which he asserts his land ethic: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

The Leopold Writing Program builds on his legacy as a writer by inspiring the next generation of leaders to participate in the evolution of environmental ethics through the written word.

The Leopold Writing Program consists of educational initiatives that support writers in three different stages of their development:
  • ALDO LEOPOLD WRITING CONTEST for New Mexico students in grades 6-12;
  • ALDO & ESTELLA LEOPOLD RESIDENCY PROGRAM, where mid-career professional writers spend a month at Mi Casita in Tres Piedras, the Leopolds’ first home;
  • ANNUAL LEOPOLD LECTURE,for nationally and internationally distinguished writers, seeks to raise the cultural awareness of Leopold’s lifelong philosophical search for how humans could “live on the land without spoiling it.”

The Golden Apple Foundation coordinated the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest, which asked students to answer this question: “How is the way people treat each other related to the way people treat the land?” Award winners will receive cash prizes and books.

The 2017 winners are:

Grades 6-7:  Tigerlily Warner, a sixth-grader at Aldo Leopold Charter School in Silver City, teacher Mark Cantrell;

Grades 8-9:  Isabella Clark, an eighth-grader at Mandela Independent Magnet School in Santa Fe, teacher Nevada Benton;

Grades 10-12:  Abygail MacCurdy, a senior at Albuquerque High School, teacher Lisa Martinez, 12th grade;

Overall Best Essayist:  Isabella Clark, an eighth-grader at Mandela Independent Magnet School in Santa Fe, teacher Nevada Benton.

Sponsors of the Leopold Lecture are: The Leopold Writing Program, the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Bookworks, and Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm.