Estella Bergere Leopold: Paleobotanist and conservationist extraordinaire

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dunwiddie, Peter; Stromberg, Caroline A. E.; Whitlock, Cathy
• 署名单位: University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; Montana State University System; Montana State University Bozeman
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-10248
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2408242121
• 发表日期: 2024-06-18

摘要

Estella Leopold passed away in Seattle, Washington, on February 25th, 2024, at the age of 97. In a career spanning over six decades, she gained renown for her paleobotanical research of past environments during the Cenozoic Era (the last 66 million years) and for her unflinching efforts in environmental conservation. Her lifelong commitment to science, her delight in the natural world, and her dedication to conservation sprang from deep roots in her remarkable family and touched many. the youngest daughter of the noted conservationist Aldo Leopold and his wife Estella. At the time of Estella's birth, Aldo was already a highly respected leader in the field of wildlife management and an ardent advocate for wilderness preservation. As a youngster, Estella made many trips with her parents and four older siblings to the family cabin north of Madison to plant trees and restore the highly degraded property. The Shack and surrounding lands along the Wisconsin River would eventually become famous in Aldo Leopold's seminal work A Sand County Almanac (1). Thus, from a very early age, Estella was surrounded by many of the ideas that she would enthusiastically embrace throughout her life. Collectively, the Leopold family helped shape the ecological and philosophical ethos that grew into the environmental movement of the 1970s and continues today. Estella's four