Documentary Caribbean Premiere - Maho Bay Resort

New Documentary Film Connects

Leopold to Current Conservation Work

Green Fire film to have Caribbean premiere at Maho Bay Resort on St. John

CRUZ BAY, ST. JOHN— On Friday March 25 at 8:00 pm, the Aldo Leopold Foundation will host the Caribbean premiere of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time, a new documentary film about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold, best known as the author of the book A Sand County Almanac. The screening is free and open to the public and will be hosted at the Pavilion Restaurant at Maho Bay Camps, an Eco-resort with a 30 year history of preserving St. John’s lush natural environment.

Green Fire is the first feature length (72 min.), high definition documentary film ever made about famed conservationist Aldo Leopold. Emmy-Award winning narrator Peter Coyote lends his talent as the voice of Aldo Leopold, and the film’s on-screen guide is Curt Meine, Leopold’s biographer. The film explores Aldo Leopold’s life in the early part of the twentieth century and the many ways his land ethic idea continues to be applied all over the world today.

Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time is a production of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Center for Humans and Nature. The film shares highlights from Leopold’s life and extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation in the twentieth century and still inspires people today. Although probably best known as the author of the conservation classic A Sand County Almanac, Leopold is also renowned for his work as an educator, philosopher, forester, ecologist, and wilderness advocate.

Aldo Leopold’s work directly influenced the formation of many conservation organizations, including the U.S. National Park Service. The U.S. Virgin Islands National Park site is co-sponsoring the public screening at Maho Bay, and will also share the film with their management team earlier that day.

More than a dozen major premiere events are being held in during the six months of 2011, including screenings in San Francisco, Denver, New York, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian. The Aldo Leopold Foundation has also begun nationwide distribution of the film for small public screenings arranged by community organizers. The film will air on public television in 2012.

“Aldo Leopold’s legacy lives on today in the work of people and organizations across the nation and around the world,” said Aldo Leopold Foundation Executive Director Buddy Huffaker. “What is exciting about Green Fire is that it is more than just a documentary about Aldo Leopold; it also explores the influence his ideas have had in shaping the conservation movement as we know it today by highlighting some really inspiring people and organizations doing great work to connect people and the natural world in ways that even Leopold might not have imagined.”

Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time illustrates Leopold’s continuing influence by exploring current projects that connect people and land at the local level. Viewers will meet urban children in Chicago learning about local foods and ecological restoration. They’ll learn about ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico who maintain healthy landscapes by working on their own properties and with their neighbors, in cooperative community conservation efforts. They’ll meet wildlife biologists who are bringing back threatened and endangered species, from cranes to Mexican wolves, to the landscapes where they once thrived. The Green Fire film portrays how Leopold’s vision of a community that cares about both people and land—his call for a land ethic—ties all of these modern conservation stories together and offers inspiration and insight for the future.

“Aldo Leopold is one of our nation’s most beloved nature writers,” says environmental historian Susan Flader. “His A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949, has become a catalyst for our evolving ecological awareness and a classic in American literature.” Leopold is regarded by many as one of the most influential conservation thinkers of the twentieth century, and the film highlights the ways his legacy continues to encourage us to see the natural world “as a community to which we belong.”

The Aldo Leopold Foundation is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization based in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The foundation’s mission is to inspire an ethical relationship between people and land through the legacy of Aldo Leopold. Leopold regarded a land ethic as a product of social evolution. “Nothing so important as an ethic is ever ‘written,’” he explained. “It evolves ‘in the minds of a thinking community.’” Learn more about the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Green Fire movie at www.aldoleopold.org

IF YOU GO:

DATE & TIME: Friday, March 25, 2011, 8:00pm

VENUE: Maho Bay Camps, Pavilion Restaurant

TICKETS: Free. No reservations required. For more information: http://www.greenfiremovie.com

CONTACT: Jennifer Kobylecky, 608-434-7994 or jennifer@aldoleopold.org .