Léopold held the position from 1933 to 1948, then it was held by Joseph Hickey from 1948 to 1976. Hickey had studied with Léopold and, in addition to having written “The guide to bird watching”, he has contributed to the printing of Leopold’s “Sand County Almanac” in 1949., one year after Leopold’s death.

And as Leopold, Hickey and John Muir – another UW-Madison student who grew up in Portage, founded the Sierra Club, and helped establish Yosemite National Park – Temple joined the trio and many more. in the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.

During a tour late last month to the grounds of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, located in the middle of the 16,000-acre Leopold-Pine Island Important Bird Area in Sauk County, Temple reflected on his own career and how he tried to defend Leopold’s ethics in a time of uncertainty.

“Throughout my life, literally from my childhood, I’ve kind of had this innate concern for the natural world, which is why I’ve found myself in a career devoted to trying to do what I can to basically help. to take care of nature. world. And I always thought, maybe a little naively, that becoming a scientist and understanding how the world works was the way to find solutions, ”Temple said from a porch a few steps from where Leopold died. of a heart attack.

“It didn’t take long to realize that as a scientist my ability to really influence the attitudes of others towards nature is quite limited. You can subject people to all the facts in the world, you can make a compelling case about the problem and the solution, and there will be a part of the population who simply won’t believe you or ignore your recommendations because it is. contrary to their vision of the world, ”he said.