Introduction

I have taught my upper-level environmental economics for well over two decades, but it has only been recently that I think my students are finally learning some important lessons from me. Over these years, the composition of the classroom has changed, with fewer economics majors and more environmental science and studies majors enrolled in the course. And while I have not changed the essential composition of the curriculum during this time, I have changed how I pitch the class and the applications I use in my teaching. Formerly employing a “chalk and talk” pedagogy commonly used in economics classrooms across the US (Asarta et al. 2021; Harter and Asarta 2022), my lecture-heavy teaching once relied on introducing and then digging into the graphs, models, and math found in standard environmental economics textbooks. Taking concepts economics majors were mostly familiar with and applying them to the environmental arena worked when my class roster was almost exclusively economics majors. However, as my class roster began to include more environmental science and studies majors and fewer economics majors, I needed a pedagogical shift to be more effective in reaching a different student population exhibiting a thinner academic portfolio in economics. I have done this by incorporating environmental literary classics, like Silent Spring and A Sand County Almanac, into my class and showing my students where the economics is in them. This is not the only way I am introducing economic concepts in this class, but there is now a large emphasis throughout the semester on the economics in these books. While this strategy is rarely used in upper-level field classes in economics (Harter and Asarta 2022; Harter et al. 2022), it fits with Bierbaum’s (2004) call for equipping tomorrow’s environmental leaders with tools to help them understand the language of many disciplines. My enhanced teaching approach was developed with that in mind.

This paper provides details of how and why I highlight key economic concepts in a portion of a set of reading quizzes I give for Aldo Leopold’s classic, A Sand County Almanac. With different economic concepts scattered throughout A Sand County Almanac, my approach does not rely on reading Leopold’s book in its entirety or in giving reading quizzes. A Sand County Almanac is conveniently divided into three or four major sections—depending on the version—and includes numerous short essays, so faculty can be as focused or as broad with their selection of concepts and questions for their individual class needs and constraints. The reading quiz questions highlighted in this paper are designed to motivate deeper thinking and discussion among students on some economic concepts that are crucial in better understanding conservation, nature’s value, and environmental policy. This approach can be useful for faculty like me who teach an environmental economics class and are looking to use a novel technique to help their students see applications of economic concepts in classic environmental literature. But this approach can also help faculty teaching any other class in the environmental studies curriculum who want their students to benefit from a strategic introduction of key economic concepts in the environmental arena.

Background, context, and rationale

A few years ago, and for the first time, I introduced a series of books into my upper-level environmental economics class curriculum. Throughout the 15-week long semester, I have my students read three books in their entirety: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Carson 2002), Jeremy Rifkin’s The Hydrogen Economy (Rifkin 2003), and Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac (Leopold 1966). No doubt, this is a big commitment, and in this section, I will explain how I pulled it off. Prior to taking this new approach in my teaching, my students wrote a series of short papers throughout the semester so they could practice applying key economic concepts in the environmental arena while simultaneously working on their writing skills. I found the time and space in my class to devote to these readings in my new pedagogical approach by dropping the writing assignments and all the effort inside and outside the classroom linked to that task. My students are now applying key economic concepts in the environmental arena as they find them in classic environmental texts. Whitaker (2002) suggests that students’ writing skills can improve by reading the best literature because they can imitate the best qualities of the best writers. Silent Spring and A Sand County Almanac are not only great works of literature but are also seminal events in the environmental arena—a survey of members of the American Nature Study Society and the North American Association of Environmental Education in 1990 showed these books were ranked the first and fourth most significant environmental events of the twentieth century (Knight 1991). My new pedagogical approach checked the boxes that needed checking—identifying economic concepts already present in the environmental arena while working towards developing better writing skills. Anecdotally, while I did not expect my economics students to have read these books previously, I was surprised to learn that many of the environmental science and studies students in my class would be reading two environmental classics for the very first time.

Using non-fiction environmental writing—a humanities-based approach—to better teach a social science like environmental economics is somewhat novel. As such, I need to explain not only why I introduced Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac into my Environmental Economics curriculum, but also why I introduced reading quizzes as a pedagogical technique. Let me start with why Leopold’s writing is helpful in teaching economic concepts in a variety of courses in the environmental studies curriculum. There are plenty of popular books in the environmental arena that deal with topics like the Green New Deal and climate change that may seem more appropriate for an environmental economics class today. However, as a classic work of environmental literature, A Sand County Almanac provides an opportunity to introduce students to the writings of the man largely responsible for inspiring the conservation movement in America (Nash 1976). Vaughn (1999) notes that Leopold “perceived and taught the interrelationships between ecology, economics, and ethics,” and his writings are some of the most important in the environmental arena (Kline 2022). Perhaps because Leopold was a member of the Agricultural Economics department at the University of Wisconsin in the years before his untimely death, A Sand County Almanac contains many discussions involving topics I teach in my environmental economics class. Sometimes, the topic is introduced indirectly, like when he references externalities—both negative and positive—that flow from the “international commerce of geese” in his March essay. This provides a great opportunity for me to steer my students in a direction they likely would not have gone in any other class. That is, I can discuss an economic topic with them that they may not have seen at first glance. The economics students are seeing an application of externalities in the natural world; the environmental science and studies students are seeing that the natural world contains even more than they imagined. At other times, Leopold is quite direct with bringing economics into the discussion, as he writes about economists and their value added in the policy arena. For those students who are not as proficient at making connections between what they read and what they learn in the classroom, Leopold’s writing makes it difficult to miss the importance of economics in conservation and our growing pursuit of ecological integrity in the US.

In her Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey, Newton (2016) highlights the contents of a standards document for wildlife managers that Leopold, as a subcommittee chairman of The Wildlife Society, helped craft in 1938. Included in this document was a call for wildlife management graduate students to be able to evaluate land in several different ways, including determining its economic uses—and any modification of that use—and their subsequent impacts on wildlife. On a professional level, Leopold was deeply aware over 85 years ago of the role that economics played in training wildlife managers and in conservation education. But he was equally aware that a broader acceptance of the land ethic introduced in his A Sand County Almanac required him to connect nature and conservation to all people and their institutions—including the decidedly economic ones. Consequently, Leopold includes numerous references to economics, economists, and economic concepts throughout A Sand County Almanac. As perhaps the earliest advocate for “interdisciplinary education” in wildlife management, Leopold and his ideas have been used by some to suggest that higher education more generally should emphasize “relations and connections between and among academic disciplines rather than on their separateness and autonomy” (Callicott 1982). An environmental economics course and many other courses in the environmental studies curriculum provide excellent arenas for environmental studies and sciences students already familiar with the science of ecology to experience Callicott’s “ecological approach to education” in Leopold’s beautiful prose highlighting the innate links between economics and conservation.

A Sand County Almanac also provides a unique arena for Shulman’s (2005) concept of signature pedagogies—or what could be considered signature pedagogies—of both environmental studies and sciences and of economics to intersect. Starting with Meine’s (1988) observation that Leopold was lauded for teaching his students “reading sign in the woods,” Smith (2018) makes a compelling case that reading the land is the signature pedagogy of environmental studies and sciences. And while there is some debate as to whether a signature pedagogy exists for economics (Maier et al. 2012), the dominant goal in nearly all economics courses is for students to learn how to think like an economist. This goal is sometimes described as an expedient pedagogy (Ciccone 2009). I make no opportunities in my class for my students to go outside to read the land, but they do learn how to read the best available non-fiction environmental writing with the eye and mind of an economist. In short, my students are taught to think like an economist while reading and discussing how Leopold reads the land in A Sand County Almanac.

A note on reading quizzes

Unfortunately, it is not enough to simply assign my students an environmental classic to read to achieve the results I seek. While reading assignments in upper-level undergraduate courses are nothing new, problems with achieving reading compliance and comprehension are also nothing new, either. Clump et al. (2004) find that only about a quarter of undergraduate psychology students read the assigned text, and Starcher and Proffitt (2011) cite numerous studies identifying the noncompliance problem across disciplines. While Burchfield and Sappington (2000) find that reading compliance has decreased over time, there are some pedagogical practices—such as reading quizzes—that can encourage reading among undergraduates (Starcher and Proffitt 2011; Hatteberg and Steffy 2013). Well-designed reading quizzes can help students improve reading comprehension and better prepare them for more meaningful classroom discussions (Hodges et al. 2015) and even help improve exam scores (Narloch et al. 2006). In total, the literature suggests that reading quizzes are a useful and beneficial pedagogical tool to be used in undergraduate classes.

While I include details on the structure of my reading quizzes for those faculty considering introducing them in their course, it is perhaps best to understand the reading quizzes are not the key piece in my new pedagogical approach. Instead, it is finding and understanding the economics in A Sand County Almanac that matters most. The economic concepts highlighted in this paper can be introduced in any fashion, and some faculty may prefer to simply read individual essays or passages in class. An in-class reading of the March essay in A Sand County Almanac, for example, may take approximately ten minutes. The in-class discussion following that reading, or any other reading, can take longer. In any case, interested faculty should pay attention to the detail about the economics that I provide in the suggested responses to the questions I include in the reading quiz linked to the monthly essays in A Sand County Almanac.

A Sand County Almanac With Essays on Conservation from Round River is published by Ballantine Books (ISBN 0345345053) and is the last of three books that I assign my students to read in my environmental economics class. Our class begins reading it in the tenth week of the semester, which is shortly after the midterm exam, so when they are reading the book and completing the reading quizzes, they are quite familiar with the process. The reading schedule is available at the start of the semester and each week’s reading assignment does not exceed 100 pages of reading. I make each quiz available one week before the due date in an attempt to prevent students from trying to get too far ahead in their reading—there is a chance a student could forget or confuse what the current reading assignment is about, which may lead to a decreased willingness to discuss the material in the classroom. On the day the reading quiz is due, I lead a discussion in class for that week’s reading assignment. The accompanying quiz questions serve as the starting point for our discussion, but I do not restrict the discussion to just those topics.

Each of the ten reading quizzes that I assign is worth 15 points, and there is a total of 500 possible points for the semester. I also give three homework assignments, worth 50 points each, and two exams which are each worth 100 points. Each reading quiz is 3% of the entire semester grade, and all the reading quizzes together comprise 30% of the final course grade. From my standpoint, students have an incentive to put an optimal amount of effort into the readings and the accompanying reading quizzes.

Because many of my students are not majoring in economics, I have designed the points for the reading quizzes to reward reading and basic reading comprehension. Each quiz has five questions, and each question is worth three points. While I do not use a formal rubric for grading these quizzes, the students are told how grading works. A student receives zero points for not answering a question, one point for providing an answer that is mostly wrong, two points for an answer that is mostly correct, but misses the main thrust of the question, and a full three points for a correct answer. In grading each question, I leave enough room for students to interpret questions differently, so there is rarely just one fully correct answer for any given question on a quiz.

The four reading assignments and the reading quizzes accompanying them follow the four parts of the book. Part I is A Sand County Almanac, from pages 3 to 98; Part II is The Quality of Landscape, from pages 101 to 173; Part III is A Taste for Country, from pages 177 to 233; Part IV is The Upshot, from pages 237 to 295. Each week’s reading is not a burdensome task for an upper-level class. In each question, I indicate the chapter or section where the answer can be found, so the student gets some guidance in finding the relevant material in the reading assignment. I provide here the questions on the first reading quiz, followed by a discussion of the relevant economic topic found within the section. Responses that correctly answer the questions should include elements of what I provide here. Many of the questions are structured to allow students flexibility in their responses. That is, I am not looking for one specific answer. Instead, the aim is to get students thinking about economic concepts as they are brought up by Leopold. Students are answering questions that force them to think like an economist while reading how Leopold reads the land.

Questions and answers

The first reading quiz covers the series of essays collectively titled A Sand County Almanac. The essays are arranged by month, progressing from January to December. Some months have more material than others. While I would like for my students to read each of the essays in this section, I can only test them on a select few months. March, September, and November contain some great references to economic topics, and I include the five questions and discussions from the first reading quiz below.

  1. (1)

    Aldo Leopold writes the following in the March chapter of Part I: “By this international commerce of geese, the waste corn of Illinois is carried through the clouds of the Arctic tundras, there to combine with the waste sunlight of a nightless June to grow goslings for all the lands between. And in this annual barter of food for light, and winter warmth for summer solitude, the whole continent receives as net profit a wild poem dropped from the murky skies upon the muds of March.” What economic concept is highlighted in this passage? Briefly explain your answer.

You can see in this first question on the first reading quiz for A Sand County Almanac that I direct the student to the relevant section of reading by quoting directly from the text of the book. At least two words in this passage should jump out as being “economic” in nature for any student in an environmental economics class like mine. Both “commerce” and “profit” should be easy for any student with even the slimmest background in economics to begin to identify an economic concept. While my ultimate goal in our subsequent classroom discussion is to identify the “wild poem” as an externality, it all begins with the two obvious economic terms noted above. By highlighting “commerce” Leopold gets the reader to consider something loosely resembling a market transaction that takes place between the land (and, indirectly, the farmer) and the geese. Understandably, the parties involved in the “commerce” are not operating intentionally as buyers and sellers would in a typical market setting, but that rough analogy seems to be by design. This seems to be a recurrent theme in Leopold’s writing—namely, the ecosystem is quite capable of operating on its own in a complex series of transactions that resemble human actions without human intervention. Considering that “commerce” suggests a business transaction (and human involvement), it is natural for Leopold to continue the analogy to include the phrase “net profit.” Leopold’s focus on the key players in this annual migration—geese, land, and people—allows the reader to consider the interplay among them all.

Deeper into the passage, Leopold notes that “the whole continent” receives profit in the form of a “wild poem” dropped from the skies, and the economic concept I am aiming for my students to identify here is externalities. Admittedly, this is a very difficult topic for students to identify as an externality, so my expectation is that I will identify and draw out the externality in a classroom discussion. The “wild poem” as an externality is especially appropriate for this class as we spend much time developing an understanding of externalities and analyzing policy responses to them during the first half of the semester. Students by this point in the semester are familiar with the topic in the environmental arena and can now see this concept in a context that’s not explicitly “economic” in nature. That is, students who are not an economics major can sometimes mistakenly believe that an economic concept must include a discussion of dollars. This look at geese and any externality associated with their annual migration is devoid of any mention by Leopold of dollars.

It is especially appealing that Leopold’s use of “wild poem” as an externality can be interpreted as either a positive or negative externality. A straight reading of the passage would suggest the “wild poem” is a positive externality, or a benefit accruing to a third party not involved in a transaction. That is, the honking of the geese as they fly overhead is a benefit—“net profit”—to people living across the lands in between the Illinois corn fields and the Arctic tundra. While the people contributed nothing in “grow[ing] goslings,” they nonetheless get to hear something of value. Identifying this benefit accruing to those without any direct involvement in bringing a new generation of geese into the world beautifully illustrates a positive externality for all students, regardless of major or academic background. Of course, Leopold could instead have included a bit of sarcasm in his meaning of a “wild poem.” Namely, an interpretation of “wild poem” as the waste that geese can produce as a nuisance suggests the “wild poem” is a negative externality. In this case, there is a cost imposed on a third party not involved in bringing the goslings into the world. For students familiar with the waste geese can produce, Leopold’s illustrating a negative externality this way can be an effective learning aid. For faculty that want to dive deeper into the topic of positive and negative externalities, an in-class discussion can consider the possible effectiveness of government policy to either increase or decrease the goose population, depending on what type of externality the “wild poem” is.

  1. (2)

    The September chapter contains an example of nonuse value. Briefly describe what nonuse value is (look in your textbook or online for a definition) and explain how Leopold’s example demonstrates it.

This question is the first time students are introduced to the concept of nonuse value in my class and includes some guidance as it requires the student to actively search for an example of nonuse value in the September chapter. Before digging into the concept of nonuse value as it relates to the September essay, I must identify what use value is. Simply enough, use value is the benefit derived from actually using or having access to an environmental good. We cover this topic extensively in our class and the fundamental idea of value is accessible and intuitive to virtually all my students. In the essay, Leopold notes “half a dozen risings in the dark” to establish that he derives value from getting up early to go outside and appreciate watching and listening to wildlife as the day begins. In particular, Leopold identifies the “choral act” of the quail as perhaps the most treasured, and most difficult, event to experience on these mornings. The fact that hearing the quail is such a rare event is what leads to the question, and subsequent discussion, of nonuse value. Because the chapter, at about two pages in length, is one of the shortest in the entire book, it is not a burdensome task to find the example of nonuse value. The term “nonuse value” is not in Leopold’s writing here but the word “value” appears once and thus serves as a guidepost for the student learning about nonuse value. Students doing an online search or checking in their textbook learn that nonuse value is the value people obtain without actually using a resource. This can often come in the form of existence, option, or bequest value. In the September chapter, Leopold writes, “The disappointment I feel on these mornings of silence perhaps shows that things hoped for have a higher value than things assured. The hope of hearing quail is worth half a dozen risings-in-the-dark.” There is value in the hope of hearing something wonderful or mystical like a covey of quail, and while this concept can be conveyed fairly easily to students, it is nevertheless difficult to pin down nonuse value using a metric like dollars. Unlike something typically bought in a market setting that we may be willing and able to pay for with dollars, the value of something as imprecise as the hope of hearing a covey of quail can be incredibly difficult to measure in any traditional way. Because nonuse value is real, it must be accounted for in any policy decision in the environmental arena and an in-class discussion can begin to touch on the tools, such as contingent valuation, available to economists that allow us to estimate nonuse value in various settings.

  1. (3)

    In the November chapter, Leopold provides a discussion of how he determines the value of white pine trees on his land. List the benefits that Leopold gets from these pine trees.

Unlike the previous question that highlights nonuse value, this question gets the student to consider some of the tangible benefits that nature provides. Leopold identifies the many benefits pine trees provide him and nature. One benefit he receives is that the pine stays green all winter, and it reminds himself of how he braves the winter winds. Some of nature’s creatures also get a benefit as the pine tree will shelter a grouse and a pileated woodpecker will chisel out a nest. Even more, the pine tree can be expected to live for a century, where underneath, it will grow a trailing arbutus, an Indian pipe, a pyrola, or a twin flower. In all of this, the pine tree stimulates Leopold’s imagination and his hopes, thus providing a set of benefits that is quite lengthy.

As Leopold identifies the many benefits of pine trees, he provides a brief commentary on his bias for the underdog. In his township, the pine is the underdog. The birch is not. I especially like his commentary here because he highlights something I make a point of drilling into every one of my students, regardless of what class I’m teaching. Specifically, scarcity brings value. It is a simple idea but provides a solid foundation for thinking more deeply about how marginal value is determined. When there is less of something available the price for it tends to be higher, all else equal. So, when an item becomes scarcer, its marginal value increases. Leopold writes, “The birch is an abundant tree in my township and becoming more so, whereas pine is scarce and becoming scarcer; perhaps my bias is for the underdog.” In this passage, he attributes at least a part of his “bias for the underdog” and the accompanying value of the underdog because of the pine’s scarcity relative to the birch. An in-class discussion can take this idea further to consider what other environmental amenities and natural resources are becoming scarcer. This type of exercise in class will help students better understand the dynamics of environmental policy.

  1. (4)

    In the November chapter, Leopold writes, “foresters have excommunicated the tamarack because he grows too slowly to pay compound interest.” Briefly explain what he means here.

First, many of my students are unfamiliar with the tamarack. A quick internet search tells them it is a tree. Of course, they can also figure that out from the context of Leopold’s writing. In this passage, Leopold suggests that the tamarack is being left behind by the foresters—“excommunicated”—because the tree grows too slowly to generate significant benefits from planting and harvesting it. The comparison to an interest rate suggests that an investment in tamaracks will not yield a better return on the investment than simply putting the same money in the bank or in growing other trees. Foresters concerned most about making a profit would prefer to plant other trees where the benefits of harvesting them are received quicker since those other trees grow faster and provide better wood and pulp. Because this is a topic often taught in a natural resource economics class, the in-class discussion can steer students towards the benefits of taking that kind of class in the future or connect it to those students who have already taken that class. Because we focus on discounting future values when we study benefit-cost analysis and interest rates are a key part of this section in the course, this topic is especially helpful to begin getting students familiar with the concept.

  1. (5)

    What is your favorite sentence in Part I? Write out the sentence and indicate the chapter and page number where it is found. Briefly explain why it is your favorite.

This question is, admittedly, not connected to economics or the natural environment. But it serves a purpose. Namely, I want my students to understand that style does matter in Leopold’s pressing for a change in attitude and approach to conservation and environmental management. And it matters now. Barbara Kingsolver, in her Introduction to A Sand County Almanac describes Leopold’s essays as “short, bright, personal gems of prose” (Leopold and Kingsolver 2020) while in Wilderness and the American Mind, Nash (2014) writes that Leopold “persuasively and eloquently” makes his case for preserving wilderness.

For many students in my class, Leopold’s writing style is unlike anything they’ve read outside of an English literature class, and I want them to grasp onto the reality that style sometimes can matter as much as substance. Overwhelmingly, my students note Leopold’s beautiful writing style—poetic is how some of them describe it—and his authenticity and unique voice as the primary reasons they appreciate A Sand County Almanac. I would be remiss not to mention that some students struggle with Leopold’s writing style as he is not as direct in presenting his ideas as many of them have become accustomed to in today’s writing style. Having a frank in-class discussion with my students about writing style can be helpful as many of them struggle to get their own thoughts on paper in a convincing way. This question gives me a chance to get them to consider how they can potentially work on improving their own writing so they can better communicate their own ideas.

Conclusion

For most faculty, assigning an entire book (or three) to read in an upper-level class in environmental economics or environmental studies or sciences is a major commitment. While the pedagogy of reading quizzes will not fit every course in the environmental studies and sciences curriculum, the economic concepts found throughout A Sand County Almanac, and especially those concepts highlighted in this paper, can nevertheless be presented in a number of different ways and in a number of different courses. Faculty can highlight these concepts by reading through and discussing all of Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, or they can select just a few individual essays as time permits during the semester. Opportunities will also exist at some colleges and universities for environmental studies faculty to ask a willing faculty member in the economics department at their school for help in identifying even more economic concepts in A Sand County Almanac than what is presented in this paper. Finally, other key books in the environmental arena include economic concepts that can likewise be fleshed out. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Carson 2002) documents in great detail the negative externalities stemming from the overuse of pesticides and has deep ties to environmental economics. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (Kimmerer 2013) critiques concepts like ecosystem services and connects quite well to natural resource economics.

Reading quizzes, like the one I have outlined for A Sand County Almanac in this paper, provide students with an incentive to read and think critically about the economic concepts in the book and about the early conservation movement in the United States. But these opportunities are not limited to an environmental economics class. Seeing topics such as valuation, externalities, and more in Leopold’s writing can give students in a variety of courses in the environmental studies and sciences curriculum a perspective that is likely to generate deeper interdisciplinary thinking. And with deeper thinking comes better understanding as our students prepare to design policies to solve our toughest future environmental problems. Reading the land and thinking like an economist is possible for every student studying environmental studies and sciences. Leopold links his push for a land ethic and his passion for the outdoors with beautiful writing while incorporating lots of economics at the same time. Faculty with an eye toward introducing economic concepts into an environmental class and a willingness to use Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac to accomplish this will find the net profit to be significant.