Aldo Leopold’s notion of a land ethic provides a useful conceptual framework for interpreting environmental histories, which in turn may be used to plan more effective land use policies for the future. In this article, the authors use a Leopoldian framework as a heuristic device to interpret the environmental history of the land in one small place—the Keweenaw Peninsula of northern Michigan—where successive human purposes altered the landscape dramatically over time. This article identifies the historical roles that power relations and the land ethic have played in land use and land health. The article concludes by identifying the need for community action based in a land ethic to maintain a healthy forest through sustainable use. Although it is unlikely the Keweenaw forest will return to its preindustrial state, the community can aim for a forest that exemplifies Leopold’s qualities of integrity, stability, productivity, and beauty.
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