We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy | Paul W. Johnson edited by Curt Meine | 9781948509657 | $25 | 298p | Coming September 25, 2025
From the Editor’s Note: “I first met Paul Johnson in 1988 alongside a hay wagon in a hillside pasture in southwestern Wisconsin. Paul had come across the Mississippi River from his home and farm in adjacent Iowa to meet with like-minded farmers and conservationists. His work as a state legislator to safeguard Iowa’s groundwater and promote sustainable agriculture had brought him attention well beyond his own state. At a volatile time in the rural Midwest, when tens of thousands of farms were being lost to foreclosure, his work and voice suggested a different path forward.
Dressed that morning in work clothes and sporting his full brown beard, Paul did not come across as the seasoned public figure that he was. He spoke plainly and in detail about his policy work in Iowa, but also about the finer points of his own farm, its soils and water, and his family’s grazing and cropping practices. A dozen of us asked questions and shared stories from our own places and experiences in Wisconsin … Compiling this collection has often felt like a continuation of the conversation we began in that Wisconsin pasture and that we carried on for more than three decades.”
The Endorsements are flooding in:
Being radical means “going to the roots” (radix) to find solutions. Paul Johnson was a practical, common-sense radical who repeatedly challenged conventional wisdom to promote a private land ethic where farmers could have a fulfilling life and career stewarding the land. His essays build upon the writings of Leopold, Carson, Berry, and Stegner, among others. They should be read by all those seeking a verdant and regenerative world through stewardship of all private lands.–Charles Bruner, David Osterberg, Ralph Rosenberg, former Members, Iowa Legislature
Paul Johnson had the soul of a poet, the heart of a farmer who loved the land, and the grit of a public servant who stood by his principles and knew how to find common ground to get the job done. Who better than longtime friend of Paul and Aldo Leopold biographer Curt Meine to capture the essence of Paul Johnson in this collection?–Bill Berry, Author, Banning DDT: How Citizen Activists in Wisconsin Led the Way
I owe Paul Johnson a great debt of gratitude and humility. Gratitude for the inspiration he provided for me and so many others to find and follow our own land ethic. And humility as he made me feel my dogged pursuit had dignity and meaning. I thank Paul for living life with courage and purpose. Thank you, Curt Meine, for the diligent, thoughtful work of knitting Paul’s thoughts and words together and making them available to the bigger world through this book.–Dick Cates, Farmer and recipient, 2013 Leopold Conservation Award
Reading Paul Johnson’s essays reminds me of how, more than ever, we need public servants who are willing to express—in words and policy—their passion for the land and people. Starting with the observations he penned during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, Paul always adhered to one foundational belief: we separate ourselves from the soil at our own peril. This book is not one man’s grief over what we have lost. Rather, it’s a testament to what we gain when stewardship-based community-building guides our decision-making—from the farm to the legislature.–Brian DeVore, Author, Wildly Successful Farming: Sustainability and the New Agricultural Land Ethic Managing editor, Land Stewardship Project.
Paul Johnson was not only a dear friend and mentor to me; he was a conservation leader who cared deeply about the land and people. (He dedicated his life to making this a better place.) Curt Meine does a masterful job of putting Paul’s (or Johnson’s) life-long writings and ideas into a timeless context. We Can Do Better is a must read for those who care about the future (and the land and people who depend on it).–Michael Dombeck, Chief Emeritus of the U.S. Forest Service
Paul Johnson was a unique man who inspired many Iowans to embrace our duty to the natural world. A thoughtful, clear thinker, he left his mark on Iowa as a legislator and environmental leader. His legislative work changed our attitude toward agriculture and its impact on the land. In his time as chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service he infused the USDA with his common sense and humanity. By capturing his essence in this collection of talks and writings, Curt Meine has done justice to his memory and documented how Paul Johnson served Nature.–Neil Hamilton, Director, Environmental Law Center, Drake University and author of The Rivers Knows, and The Land Remains
This memorial to Paul Johnson’s life and work needed to happen. Its larger objective is to help us better understand the present-day struggle to manifest Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and create a regenerative agriculture. Whether or not the reader is familiar with Paul’s ideas and writing, they will appreciate how he weaved his rural midwestern roots, humor and clear-eyed observations into a broadly appealing vision and transformative public policy. Curt Meine’s succinct and highly readable introductions to each of the essays provide historic context to Paul Johnson’s 35 years of public life. Collected together and interpreted, these essays trace the arc of private lands conservation as an idea and as public policy, and the increasingly brazen power politics of agribusiness that has worked to neutralize it.–Laura Jackson, Director, Tallgrass Prairie Center, Professor of Biology, University of Northern Iowa
Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Paul Johnson devoted his exemplary life to serving people, land, and animals. Meine has assembled Paul’s thoughts on conservation, and they ring as clear as a mountain stream. For those who read these words, you will be enriched by this remembrance of a truly exceptional American.–Richard L. Knight, Professor Emeritus of Wildlife Conservation, Colorado State University
This is the textbook for what the conservation movement—and indeed our democracy—desperately needs right now: “pragmatic, radical centrism.” Paul’s ability to find common ground and productively move people along the middle path, all while staying true to his own values, was truly remarkable. I’ve tried to assist the natural resource managers I train in developing this skill. It’s hard to teach and learn. Now I will just hand them a copy of We Can Do Better.– Lisa Schulte Moore, Professor and Co-director, Bioeconomy Institute, Iowa State University
Many of us knew and loved Paul Johnson’s visionary and compassionate leadership that helped to reshape the world of rural conservation over more than four decades. But thanks to Curt Meine’s careful curating of Paul’s writing we can now see how surprisingly profound and far-reaching Paul’s interests and accomplishments were, rippling out far beyond the Upper Midwest to reinvigorate all of America. We are better off because of the deep thinking and inspired dialogue fostered by both Johnson and Meine. Here is a book to slowly savor.–Gary Paul Nabhan, Franciscan gyrovague and interaction ecologist
Paul Johnson wrote about his love of the land and our collective responsibility to care for the land with the same passion he had in tending to the land. His essays provide a roadmap for generations to follow leading to healthier soils, cleaner water, and expanded habitats.–Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa (1999-2007), U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (2009-2017, 2021-2025)
CURT MEINE is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer. He serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and with the Chicago-based Center for Humans and Nature. He is also a Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo and Associate Adjunct Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.
Meine received his B.A. in English and History from DePaul University in Chicago, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Land Resources from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dissertation was published in 1988 as Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (reissued in a new edition in 2010). This work, the first biography of Leopold, received a number of awards, including the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Award of Merit, the Wisconsin Library Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Forest History Society’s Book of the Year Award. After completing his Ph.D. Meine served in Washington with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on programs involving biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and international development. Returning to Wisconsin, he worked with colleagues at the International Crane Foundation and around the world to develop the first global conservation action plan for cranes.
Meine has written and edited a number of books on conservation and environmental history, including Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision (1998), The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries (1999), Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation (2004); the Library of America collection Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology (2013); and the bioregional anthology The Driftless Reader (2017). Meine also served as narrator and on-screen guide for the Emmy Award-winning documentary film Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time (2011), which continues to be screened in venues around the country and has appeared more than 1,000 times on PBS stations.