Curt Meine, Ph.D., is a conservation biologist, historian, and writer. He received his bachelor’s degree in English and History from DePaul University in Chicago and his graduate degrees in Land Resources from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
During his conservation career over the last twenty years, Meine has worked on projects involving topics ranging from biodiversity conservation planning, sustainable agriculture, and international development, to crane and wetland conservation, prairie restoration, and development of community-based conservation programs. He has worked in Europe, Asia, and across North America, in partnership with organizations including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Conservation Union, the World Wildlife Fund, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Society of Conservation Biology and on the editorial boards of the journals Conservation Biology and Environmental Ethics.
Meine has edited and authored several books. His biography Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work, published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1988, was the first full-length biography of Leopold, and was named Book of the Year by the Forest History Society. He has edited the volumes The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries and Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision. He also wrote Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation (Island Press). His most recent book is The Driftless Reader (University of Wisconsin Press). Meine is a recipient of the Bay Foundation’s Biodiversity Leadership Award and the Quivira Coalition’s Outstanding Conservation Leadership Award.
In addition to his work with the Center for Humans and Nature, Meine currently serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation, and a Fellow with the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Art & Letters. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is active locally as a founding member of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance in Sauk County, Wisconsin.
Contributions to Humans & Nature:
Stories & Ideas:
Articles in Minding Nature:
- The Year of Autumn Lilacs
- Healing Sacred Earth
- The Edge of Anomaly
- Conservation and Continuity
- Facing North From Michigan’s Shores
- Leopold’s Evolving Legacy: Key Trends in Conservation Ideas, Science, and Practice
- Conservation Science, Ethics, Policy, & Practice
- CHN at Work: Bringing Perspective to the Biofuels Debate
- Washed Up on the Shores of Lake Michigan
City Creatures blog posts:
Questions for a Resilient Future responses:
- Hunting for Our Humanity
A response to “Does hunting make us human?” - Reweaving Webs, Reimagining Ourselves
A response to “How far should we go to bring back lost species?” - The Calling of Cranes
A response to “How can zoos and aquariums foster cultures of care and conservation?” - Driving Genes on a Slippery Slope
A response to “‘Gene drive’ technology will let us edit life in new ways, but should we use it?” - Books for the Center for Humans and Nature:
- Wildness: Relations of People and Place, “The Edge of Anomaly,” 2017, University of Chicago Press
Noteworthy Links:
- Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work
The quintessential biography of environmentalist Aldo Leopold, by Curt Meine.
