This is the text of Leopold's essay "Draba" paired with beautiful images. This presentation can be used as a backdrop to help illustrate public readings of the essay.
1. On this SlideShare page, you will find several Power Point presentations, one for each of the
most popular essays to read aloud from A Sand County Almanac at Aldo Leopold Weekend
events. Each presentation has the essay text right on the slides, paired with beautiful images that
help add a visual element to public readings. Dave Winefske (Aldo Leopold Weekend event
planner from Argyle, Wisconsin) gets credit for putting these together. Thanks Dave!
A note on images within the presentations: we have only received permission to use these
images within these presentations, as part of this event. You will see a photo credit slide as the
last image in every presentation. Please be sure to show that slide to your audience at least
once, and if you don't mind leaving it up to show at the end of each essay, that is best. Also please
note that we do not have permission to use these images outside of Aldo Leopold Weekend
reading event presentations. For example, the images that come from the Aldo Leopold
Foundation archive are not “public domain,” yet we see unauthorized uses of them all the time on
the internet. So, hopefully that’s enough said on this topic—if you have any questions, just let us
know. mail@aldoleopold.org
If you download these presentations to use in your event, feel free to delete this intro slide before
showing to your audience.
4. Within a few weeks now Draba, the smallest flower
that blows, will sprinkle every sandy place with
small blooms. He who hopes for spring with
upturned eye never sees so small a thing as Draba.
5. He who despairs of
spring with downcast eye steps
on it, unknowing.
He who searches for
spring with his knees in the mud
finds it, in abundance. Draba
asks, & gets, but scant
allowance of warmth & comfort;
it subsists on the leavings of
unwanted time & space.
6. Botany books give it two or three lines, but never a plate or portrait. Sand
too poor & sun too weak for bigger, better blooms are good enough for
Draba. After all it is no spring flower, but only a postscript to a hope.
7. Draba plucks no heartstrings. Its perfume, if
there is any, is lost in the gusty winds. Its color
is plain white. Its leaves wear a sensible woolly
coat. Nothing eats it; it is too small. No poets
sing of it. Some botanist once gave it a Latin
name, and then forgot it.
8. Altogether it is of no importance just a small creature that does a small
job quickly and well.
9. Photo Credits
•Historic photographs: Aldo Leopold Foundation archives
•A Sand County Almanac photographs by Michael Sewell
•David Wisnefske, Sugar River Valley Pheasants Forever, Wisconsin Environmental Education Board, Wisconsin
Environmental Education Foundation, Argyle Land Ethic Academy (ALEA)
•UW Stevens Point Freckmann Herbarium, R. Freckmann, V.Kline, E. Judziewicz, K. Kohout, D. Lee, K Sytma, R.
Kowal, P. Drobot, D. Woodland, A. Meeks, R. Bierman
•Curt Meine, (Aldo Leopold Biographer)
•Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Education for Kids (EEK)
•Hays Cummins, Miami of Ohio University
•Leopold Education Project, Ed Pembleton
•Bird Pictures by Bill Schmoker
•Pheasants Forever, Roger Hill
•Ruffed Grouse Society
•US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Forest Service
•Eric Engbretson
•James Kurz
•Owen Gromme Collection
•John White & Douglas Cooper
•National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
•Ohio State University Extension, Buckeye Yard and Garden Online
•New Jersey University, John Muir Society, Artchive.com, and Labor Law Talk
