AS LEOPOLD SUCCESSORS, QUIVIRANS MARCH ON ...

It's been 100 years since Aldo Leopold came to the Southwest as one of our country's first federal forest rangers. During the next four decades, he would become one of nature's most effective advocates: land conservation, wilderness protection, ecological restoration, watershed management -- these great, but still-challenged practices of today owe much to his teachings. Since his death in 1948, America's environmental movement has made many wonderful advances.

One of them, to our mind, is the Quivira Coalition: Formed a dozen years ago by folks seeking a balance between the environmental and agricultural extremes of the day, the coalition continues carrying out that aim by convening those sides, as well as good numbers of other concerned Southwesterners, in quest of common ground.

They've found plenty: Perhaps the group's greatest achievement is the ongoing experiment in "grass banking" -- by which federally leased rangeland gets a rest from too much grazing through organized shifts of herds onto temporary grazing sites; a tough job, but one that's showing results in restored pasturelands.

"Alluvial storage" is another coalition effort showing results: It's aimed at more effective containment of water in streambanks often threatened both by drought and by wallowing cattle.

The better the care taken with governmental grazing lands, the stronger the case for keeping them, instead of turning public property into privately developed suburban sprawl. So these efforts are good news for ranchers beset by big-city environmentalists -- and equally good news for enviros who in past years reacted harshly to some of the more destructive rangeland practices.

The coalition's conferences have drawn hundreds -- politicians and other policymakers, ranch-organization leaders, environmental activists and just plain old ranchers have gathered in good company to find ways of preserving the land that all of 'em love.

So it's fitting that, Nov. 4-6, at Albuquerque's Embassy Suites, the Quivira Coalition's conference is dedicated to "Living Leopold -- the land ethic and a new agrarianism."

Its free Wednesday-evening session features readings of Leopold's works -- by folks who know their stuff: Authors Bill deBuys and Linda Hasselstrom; historian Curt Meine; ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan; Aldo's daughter Estella Leopold, a retired professor of biology; and his great-granddaughter, conservationist Clare Kazanski.

That event will be preceded by pre-conference seminars on induced water-meandering and a "range school" on harmony between livestock and wildlife.

On Thursday and Friday, there are sessions on land health, conservation, sustainable agriculture, restoration, beauty and -- perhaps most promising -- "the land ethic."

If those topics have a common-sense sound, it's because coalition director Courtney White and so many volunteers have made the Quivira Coalition a worthy namesake of the Gran Quivira, the legendary paradise of the Plains sought by so many conquistadores during the European exploration of the American West.

This conference, year in and year out, has been well worth the time of the folks who've taken time out for frank and friendly sessions on sustainable agriculture in these increasingly crowded times. We highly recommend calling the coalition, 505-820-2544, or checking out its Web site at www.quiviracoalition.org.

There's much to celebrate in the dedicated life of Aldo Leopold -- and as his adherents know only too well, there's much to be done in the nature-conservation. We salute the Quivira Coalition for its efforts on that front.