This year's contest features quotes by two environmental writers: Aldo Leopold, who believed that the idea of community should include humans, plants, animals, and the land, and Joy Harjo, an Indigenous writer, musician, and poet, who writes about humankind's connection to land.

Click here to access a Free Lesson Plan

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ESSAY PROMPT: Using examples from your own experience, write about how we can learn important lessons by paying attention to the natural world. Be sure to reference both quotations in your essay.

QUOTATIONS: 

“It's possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”
― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems
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“The last word in ignorance is the [person] who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?"
 ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

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​Aldo Leopold Biographical Information 

• ​About Aldo Leopold from The Aldo Leopold Foundation
• Aldo Leopold Fact Sheet

Aldo Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” ​

• Read an excerpt from Leopold's 1949 "The Land Ethic"
• The Land Ethic article from The Aldo Leopold Foundation

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Joy Harjo Biographical Information 

• ​About Joy Harjo from www.joyharjo.com
• Read Joy Harjo's advice to writers in Time Magazine

Joy Harjo's Writing​

• Read a sample of Harjo's poems
• Watch Harjo speak about storytelling at the Bioneer's 2025 Conference

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​Exploring the Native Plants of New Mexico
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• Students can learn about native plants of New Mexico through this free text. 
• What lessons do these plants teach you? How does learning about your local plant life connect you to a sense of home?

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Curriculum Resources for New Mexican students

• ​The Outdoor Learning Toolkit: Browse this website of free outdoor education lesson plans for New Mexican students
• Bosque Education Guide from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History
• 350 New Mexico: Environmental Curriculum and Activities for New Mexico and the Southwest
• Learn about Aldo Leopold Activity

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​Voices Beyond Leopold: Other Writers on the Relationship Between Humans and the Land

These essays by diverse writers can help get students thinking about environmental writing and their Leopold Writing Contest essay submissions.

• Camille T. Dungy: “Is All Writing Environmental Writing?”
• Lauret E. Savoy: “To See the Whole: A Future of Environmental Writing”
• Natalie Diaz: "The First Water is the Body"
• Joy Harjo: "Praise the Rain"
• Ofelia Zepeda: "It is Going to Rain"
• Jourdan Imani Keith: "Desegregating Wilderness"
• Robin Wall Kimmerer: "Nature Needs a New Pronoun..."​​​

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​Wild Friends Program

Are you interested in engaging your students in environmental advocacy? There will be conservation related bills at this year's legislative session. Learn how to get your students involved in this advocacy work at www.wildfriends.unm.edu.

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​Bigger Picture:  The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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• How do Harjo's and Leopold's ideas fit into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?
• Why is it important to think about the actions of the entire world when we consider sustainability?