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Where We Stand --
League Policies
Our policies are developed by
League members through the passage of resolutions, which generally occur
first at the chapter
level, then are approved at the state division level, before ultimately
being approved at a national
convention. Below are just a few of the policies developed over the years
by our citizen activists. You can read all of the League's policies, HERE,
at our national office website.
Click on the links in the bulleted lists to take you
to the topic of interest.
Forests - Public
Lands
Carrying
Capacity
Energy
Outdoor
Ethics
Fish and Wildlife
Firearms
1) Public lands are a perpetual trust to be administered for
the long-range benefit of all people. Local and other special interests
should receive due consideration in the administration of public lands,
but the overall public interest must be paramount, and special interests
must not be allowed to exploit public lands or to gain vested rights to
the public's resources.
2) Any individual or group granted the privilege of special
use of public lands should pay a reasonable fee for that privilege,
based on fair market values, and should be held accountable for any
abuse.
3) There should be no mass transfer of public lands to
private ownership or of federal lands to the states.
4) The public lands should be managed so as to protect or
enhance the resource base.
5) Under the concepts of sustained yield and multiple use,
public lands should be managed for a mix of purposes including watershed
protection, soil and forest conservation, wildlife habitat improvement,
wilderness and outdoor recreation - as well as production of timber,
livestock, minerals and other commodities. The public interest requires
continued availability of renewable resources of the highest quality.
6) Public lands should be classified into management units,
with each unit managed according to a comprehensive, multiple-use land
management plan. Management plans should be prepared by
interdisciplinary teams of natural resource professionals, with ample
public participation and in full compliance with the National
Environmental Policy Act.
7) To realize long-term productivity potentials of the public
lands, mechanisms should be established to promote long-range management
planning and to assure commitment of funds throughout the long run.
8) To permit efficient administration and management of all
public land resources, action should be taken to eliminate undesirable
private inholdings, dispose of small isolated tracts not useful to the
public, block out boundaries and otherwise consolidate public land
holdings through exchange, purchase, sale or other means.
9) User advisory boards should be truly advisory, not
administrative in nature and should represent equitably all land-user
interests, including outdoor recreation and wildlife.
10) The League rejects the concept of dominant use proposed
by the Public Land Law Review Commission and opposes any measure that
would give timber production, livestock grazing or mineral extraction
philosophical or legal precedence over other multiple-use objectives for
the public lands.
11) Public land resources should be managed by professional
managers, without political intervention in the analysis, evaluation and
display of management options. Choices among options may be made
properly on political or economic grounds.
12) Publicly owned conservation areas should not be used as
waste disposal sites. (back to top)
Public Forest Management
1) Public forests include national forests managed by the
U.S. Forest Service, forests managed by the Bureau of Land Management,
and numerous state forests dedicated to multiple-use management. Public
forests should be managed to serve a broad spectrum of public purposes
and uses, recognizing that the bulk of the nation's long-term timber
potential is on lands owned by industry, farmers and other private
parties. Commodity uses of public forests must not be overemphasized at
the expense of public values such as fish and wildlife, outdoor
recreation, water quality, scenic beauty, wilderness and natural
ecosystems.
2) The League supports the sustained-yield
concept of forest management but recognizes that sustained timber
yields should not necessarily be taken from lands that are valuable
primarily for noncommodity purposes and where sustained-yield harvest
would be incompatible with those purposes.
3) Management of timber on federal forestlands should be
according to standards that:
- Are consistent with the nondeclining, even-flow,
sustained-yield concept.
- Analyze each proposal for the culture and harvesting of
forest products and related construction activities in terms of
impacts on water quality standards, fish and wildlife habitat,
old-growth values, protective buffer strips, endangered species,
aesthetic values, silvicultural practices and forest type.
- Permit individual forests to set their own goals through
the forest planning process, even if those goals do not meet
national output targets.
- Provide for public participation in planning. o Identify
areas where harvesting of forest products is prohibited or
subordinate to other uses.
- Require reforestation of inadequately stocked forestland
and generally prohibit timber sales in the absence of techniques and
funding to assure restocking with desirable species within five
years.
- Base allowable cut on actual standing timber, not on
theoretical gains from intensive forestry practices.
- Provide for full use of any timber cut or killed.
- Ensure that rotations are sufficiently long to serve
wildlife, recreation and other public purposes and are fully
compatible with multiple-use management.
- Prohibit conversion of existing stands to other forest
types solely to maximize commodity outputs.
- Ensure that management practices minimize damage to the
environment and that unavoidable damage is mitigated promptly.
- Encourage uneven-age management, especially in the eastern
hardwoods.
- Limit the size and visual impact of clear-cuts where
even-age management is used.
- Implement an environmentally safe gypsy moth management
program.
4) In general, the next generation of forest plans should
place greater emphasis on fisheries, aquatic
resources, remote habitats, watersheds and wildlife, de-emphasize timber
harvest relative to other resource values, and scale back excessive road
building.
5) When properly planned, controlled burning offers a
valuable tool for scientific forest management.
6) Export of raw logs from federal and state lands should be
restricted to ease demands on federal forests and to protect domestic
wood products jobs. Importation of foreign timber products that have not
been treated for pests should be banned.
7) Federal old-growth forests in the
Pacific Northwest should be protected from logging wherever old-growth
values are incompatible with timber harvest. The League urges Congress
to protect the biologically significant remnants of the remaining
ancient forests. Other old-growth areas should be managed to maintain
existing old-growth attributes and dependent plant and animal
communities, to minimize fragmentation of stands, and preserve migration
corridors. Harvests of old-growth forests at nonsustainable levels
should not be mandated by law, nor should Congress limit judicial review
of federal forest management. (back to top)
Recreation
1) All public lands should allow for a range of outdoor
recreation opportunities consistent with other values and uses,
although not every type of recreation need be accommodated on every
public land area.
2) Government should assure public access to public lands.
National parks and monuments are established to preserve
unique scenic, ecological, geologic, historic or other environmental
values and the associated native ecological communities. They should be
managed to maintain those values in natural condition, to educate
visitors about the natural world, and to provide opportunities for
outdoor enjoyment of the natural environment. Artificiality and
development should be minimized. User facilities should, insofar as
possible, be located outside the park and operated by private
enterprise. Constructed recreation facilities, such as golf courses, ski
lifts and marinas, should be prohibited and eliminated where they exist.
Water resource development, timber harvest, mining, livestock grazing
and other commodity uses should not be permitted in parks and monuments
- except as they are phased out of new areas during fixed periods.
Because it believes visitors should have maximum opportunity to view and
enjoy wildlife, the League holds that hunting should not be permitted in
national parks and monuments. All private properties within these areas
should be acquired by the public. The National Park Service should be
authorized to assure implementation of sound land-use controls within
holdings and adjacent to park and monument boundaries to preclude
development that adversely affects area values.
As they enter the 21st century, the national parks face
serious threats: industrial and commercial development on adjacent
lands, air pollution that cuts visibility and hides famous vistas,
noise, overcrowding, overdevelopment, soil erosion and encroachment of
exotic species of plants and animals. In response, the League calls for:
- Increasing the role of science in park management and
sharply boosting the budget for research, monitoring and resource
management.
- Focusing more effort on external threats to parks,
including closer cooperation with managers of adjacent public lands.
- Decreasing overcrowding and use that poses a threat to
park resources.
(back to top)
National
Wildlife Refuges
Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, national
wildlife refuges are established to preserve and manage habitat for the
protection and propagation of migratory waterfowl and other wildlife
species.
1) The League believes certain refuges are adjacent to land
and water resources of unique national significance and should be
expanded and managed to protect those values in perpetuity. Further, the
League believes there are critical riverine and wetland ecosystems that
contain unique fish and wildlife values that warrant protection by
designating them as new units of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The League believes such areas should be available to carefully
controlled hunting, fishing and other compatible recreational uses to
the extent they do not intrude upon environmental values or primary
management purposes. Subject to proper regulation, timber harvest,
agricultural production and other commodity uses may be permitted on a
case-by-case basis.
2) The League supports full funding for the Refuge Revenue
Sharing Fund by increasing annual appropriations to balance declining
receipts from commodity uses of refuge lands as needed to meet the
federal government's full in-lieu-of-tax obligations to local
governments. (back to top)
Since its inception, the League has supported actions to
assure that significant and representative portions of national forests,
national parks, national wildlife refuges and other federal lands are
set aside forever in their natural, wild condition for the enjoyment and
education of people and for scientific purposes. No developments, such
as roads and tourist facilities, no mining and no timber harvesting
should be permitted in such areas (although mining is permitted under
the Wilderness Act). Consumptive uses (primarily grazing) should be
allowed only where established prior to designation and compatible with
the wilderness concept. Primarily, wilderness is a place for hiking,
climbing, camping, hunting, fishing and aesthetic enjoyment. The League
supports management of wilderness to control recreational use,
overcrowding and damage to environmental values. The League further
recognizes the essential role of fire in replenishment of certain
ecosystems and calls for:
1) Better definition of the objectives of the role of fire in
management of wilderness.
2) Definite guidelines under which natural fire can be
allowed to burn.
3) Implementation of planned ignition of fire as a management
tool for meeting wilderness objectives and protecting wilderness values.
The League believes that carefully selected areas that show
some evidence of human impact, as in the East, should be designated as
wilderness and managed so wilderness conditions are restored by the
forces of nature. (back to top)
Carrying Capacity
Since its inception, the Izaak Walton League of America has
recognized that humans are an integral part of the natural world,
subject to the same natural laws, requirements and controls as other
animal species. Although they often address limited issues of the
moment, League policies historically reflect this broader understanding.
In 1965, the League began to consider human ecology directly, and during
the ensuing years the IWLA has spoken out about the ultimate human
carrying capacity of the nation and the Earth in the policies summarized
below:
Sustainability is defined as a system that meets the basic
needs of all people without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own life-sustaining needs.
Pressures of unplanned, unconstrained growth contribute
substantially to the social and environmental problems besetting America
today. Unrestricted growth threatens our quality of life, our natural
surroundings and our social and economic aspirations. Long-term growth
choices too often are made by default. As our society moves from an era
of apparent resource abundance to an age of resource shortage, it must
come to terms with the futility of attempting to sustain endless growth
in a world of finite resources. Accordingly, the League urges all levels
of government to address major growth issues and to participate in
development of a U.S. national growth policy that would:
- Promote productive equilibrium between people and our
environment by bringing population and consumption into balance with
the resource base.
- Recognize that quantity and quality are not always
mutually attainable.
- Describe growth alternatives in terms of their social,
economic and environmental costs and benefits - with attention to
topics such as energy, food, land use, transportation and urban
sprawl.
- Provide all segments of the population with opportunity to
achieve lives of quality and dignity.
- Ensure that long-range growth implications of program and
budgetary choices are considered centrally during public
decision-making.
- Ensure that the long-term productivity and carrying
capacity of America's resources are not sacrificed to short-term
uses.
- Urge planners at all levels of local, state and federal
government to develop long-range strategies that preserve the
quality and diversity of outdoor recreation experiences essential to
the human spirit. (back to top)
1) The League urges governments and private agencies to
conduct scientific research and to encourage polices, attitudes, social
standards and programs that will - through voluntary actions consistent
with human rights and individual conscience - bring about the
stabilization of human population. Government and private efforts should
include but not be limited to:
- Development of a national policy on population and natural
resources.
- Incorporation of sustainable development principles in
foreign and domestic policies.
- Development of goals for stabilizing populations that
incorporate the principles of economic development and environmental
conservation.
- Dissemination of birth control information to all segments
of society.
- Emphasis on the desirability of limiting family size to
two or fewer natural children.
- Education about sex and population problems in the
nation's educational institutions.
- Provision of population education for people of all ages.
- Support of national and international efforts to stabilize
population through funding for family planning and promoting
equality between men and women.
2) The League supports the right of the individual to choose
freely methods of fertility control consistent with the dictates of
individual conscience and accepted medical practice. The League neither
advocates nor opposes abortion. (back to top)
The United States increasingly faces critical shortages in
many renewable and nonrenewable resources, including farmlands, forest
resources, fossil fuels, important metals and minerals, even water.
Extraction and consumption of these resources cannot be sustained at
present rates without unacceptable impairment of environmental quality
overall and reduced productivity of lands and waters traditionally used
for agricultural and wildlife purposes. Therefore, the League urges
government to develop resource use policies that:
- Recognize that each generation has the right to use only a
small portion of limited resources and the responsibility to share
those resources with coming generations.
- Generally reduce demand for and consumption of scarce
resources.
- Encourage resource recovery, recycling and reuse.
- Identify priority uses for scarce resources.
- Increase the efficiency of resource extraction and use.
- Encourage technological developments that reduce the
environmental impacts of resource extraction and processing.
- Integrate demographic data into resource decision-making.
- Direct foreign aid to sustainable projects.
- Promote practices that reduce consumption and waste.
- Support stewardship among nations in resource use.
Controlling pollution also will require fundamental changes
in the ways our government and our economy view and account for
environmental insults. We must recognize that environmental costs are
real costs and that they now are being paid by the public in ill health,
shortened lives, lost recreational opportunities and publicly funded
cleanup efforts. In the future, the full environmental costs involved in
producing, consuming and cleaning up after any product or service should
be included in the price tag and paid by the consumers of the product.
Only then will market-based decisions by business and consumers tend to
clean up our environment. To reach that goal, the Izaak Walton League
has called for setting discharge limitations at levels that will meet
society's environmental goals, so pollution is prevented or cleaned up,
the environment is protected from further damage, and the costs of
cleanup are built into the price structure so market choices fully
reflect environmental costs. (back to top)
Energy
Principles
1) An energy policy for the United States should strive to
have energy price closely reflect total energy cost. This policy should
favor least-cost means of providing energy that include consideration of
external costs, such as environmental damage, costs associated with a
trade deficit, interest payments or defense costs.
2) Petroleum and coal are not only principal energy sources
but are the raw materials for hundreds of products used by modern
society. Continuing or expanding their use is unwise. National energy
policy therefore should stress conservation of hydrocarbons and should
take full advantage of energy-saving technologies and renewable energy
sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. The League supports the use
of renewably produced ethanol if the necessary adjustments in fuel
volatility are made to prevent increased production of smog and ozone.
3) A major shift in energy policy and research efforts is
mandatory. The objective should be to reduce drastically dependence on
fossil fuels and nuclear power by the following methods:
- Achieving maximum efficiency from fuel use, including the
use of "waste" heat from power generation and cogeneration
using waste heat from existing industrial processes.
- Reducing energy demand by educating the public about
energy conservation and by changing public policies that promote
energy consumption.
4) Future energy needs can be met most economically by more
efficient use of energy supplies through conservation. Utility rates
should be reformed to provide incentives for utilities to invest in
improving system efficiency, and utilities should be required to enact
effective electric power demand reduction programs.
5) The conservation provisions of a national energy policy
should include the following:
- Uniform building code requirements for insulation and
efficient lighting.
- Increased use of mass transit in urban areas.
- Shifting interstate freight from trucks and airlines to
railroads.
- Enacting a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard
of 45 miles per gallon by the year 2000 to encourage use of new
auto-efficiency technologies.
6) The League also calls specifically for full wilderness
protection for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (back
to top)
1) Existing nuclear power plants should be allowed to
operate.
2) No new nuclear construction permits should be granted
until full and satisfactory answers are available to questions
concerning disposal of nuclear wastes and cumulative environmental
impacts of multiple nuclear power plants.
3) Nuclear power should be used only if all other least-cost
alternatives have been used fully, including efficiency measures and
alternative sources of energy. (back to top)
Outdoor Ethics
The League supports
the following:
1) Higher hunting license fees, if necessary, to finance
actions such as new hunter education programs that include concentrated
attention to hunting ethics and supplementary training for all waterfowl
hunters.
2) New laws, as needed, in an effort to end poaching, hunting
from vehicles and indiscriminate shooting.
3) Increased enforcement of federal wildlife laws by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, stiffer penalties for waterfowl violations,
as well as vigorous enforcement of existing statutes.
4) Licensing systems that make it possible to deny sale of
licenses to people convicted of major wildlife law and other hunting
violations.
5) Each state, through its fish and wildlife outdoor
recreation agency, should educate the outdoor-using public about the
ethics, as well as legalities, of various outdoor recreation activities.
The League urges the fish and wildlife agency of each state to provide
vigorous leadership in statewide campaigns to eradicate "slob"
hunting. (back to top)
The League opposes
the following:
1) Fishing contests, because they tend to encourage
unsportsmanlike practices.
2) The use of vehicles in stream- beds. Off-road-vehicle use
on federal lands should be prohibited except where and when expressly
permitted. (back to top)
Wildlife
1) The League believes that it may be proper to permit hunting
and fishing, subject to careful regulation, wherever populations of
game species are large enough to support controlled harvest. Sport
hunting and fishing are valid recreation pursuits in their own right -
they may provide food for the table - and hunting is used as a
management tool in balancing wildlife populations with the carrying
capacity of their habitat. (back to top)
2) The League recognizes that for reasons of public safety,
public enjoyment of the natural environment, and related purposes, it is
in the public interest to close some areas to some or all forms of
hunting and fishing - even where wildlife and fish populations are large
enough otherwise to support such use.
3) Strenuous efforts should be made to prevent the extinction
or local extermination of any fish, wildlife or plant species. Where
practicable, fish and wildlife species - including predators - should be
re-established in areas from which they have been driven by human
activity.
4) Utmost caution should be exercised in the introduction of
fish and wildlife species or invasive varieties of plants, such as the
purple loosestrife, into areas where they are not native.
5) The League views habitat management and improvement as the
basic tool of fish and wildlife management. It does not consider
artificial stocking to be a primary management technique, except in
special cases. Wetlands, which provide key habitat for waterfowl and
many other species of wildlife, should receive special protection.
6) The League believes the public should support active
management and research for nongame species of fish and wildlife as well
as game species.
7) The League supports international arrangements to assure
proper management and protection of migratory species, marine fish and
wildlife, polar species and other species inhabiting areas under control
of various nations.
8) Hunting and fishing regulations should be based on
scientific principles rather than on political pressures. They should
reflect the best biological data available, and they should be set by
trained personnel of fish and wildlife agencies, rather than by
legislatures.
9) Lawful hunters, fishers and trappers should be protected
from intentional harassment by others opposed to those activities,
whether by blocking access, verbal interference, disturbing game or
other tactics.
10) The illegal taking of wildlife and fish is unethical,
unsportsmanlike and destructive to fish and wildlife. The League
supports vigorous enforcement of wildlife and fisheries laws and urges
sportsmen to report violations.
11) The League believes that conflicts about wildlife,
fisheries or other wild, living resources should be resolved using the
following hierarchy: placing the highest priority on protecting the
resource base (the habitat); giving second priority to sustaining the
wildlife or fish resource itself; and accommodating the needs of the
user last. Sustainable human use depends on healthy wildlife
populations, which in turn depend on productive habitats. The mission of
wildlife conservation is to perpetuate natural habitats that will
support abundant wildlife populations, not to preside over the
allocation of a vanishing resource. (back to
top)
Fisheries
1) To protect and restore severely depleted native runs of
salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest, the League has called for
the following:
o Rebuilding populations of native strains through stocking
and protection. o Limiting the impact of dams and irrigation withdrawals
by installing ladders, screens and other fish-passage facilities;
controlling water flows to maximize fish passage; protecting spawning
habitats; and rejecting dams that would diminish fish runs or limit
recovery. o Replacing depleted runs in their original locations using
the original genetic strains. o Limiting harvests to healthy runs;
restricting ocean harvests of chinook; giving sport harvest precedence
over commercial take; and strictly enforcing all harvest restrictions. o
Honoring all existing treaties to protect established Indian fisheries
but establishing no new treaty rights. o Regulating logging, farming,
road building, mining and pollution discharges to protect spawning and
rearing habitats.
2) Dams that restrict the passage of anadromous fish or
degrade water quality vital to fisheries should be managed or
retrofitted to ensure fish passage; maintain adequate, properly timed
water flows; and maintain water quality and temperature adequate for
spawning and passage.
3) The League urges states to establish fish consumption
advisories and make them widely available with comparative risk data
that is meaningful to the public, identify sources of contamination, and
recommend cleaning and cooking methods to reduce contaminants.
4) The League strongly encourages voluntary use of barbless
hooks in all catch-and-release areas. (back to
top)
Commercial Uses
1) The League opposes commercial transport or sale of game
animals or fish or the meat thereof.
2) The League regards carefully regulated trapping
as a valid economic use of wildlife populations, as well as a means for
controlling particular wildlife populations and specific nuisance
animals. (back to top)
3) Commercial fishing or specific fishing practices should be
curtailed or prohibited where stocks of target species have been
seriously depleted, where impairment of recreational fishing values is
greater than any commercial losses to be sustained (as in the case of
commercial gill nets on the Great Lakes), or to protect other
environmental values (as in national parks).
Threatened and Endangered
Species
1) Habitat critical to threatened or endangered species of
fish, wildlife or plants should not be destroyed or adversely modified.
2) To preserve genetic and ecological diversity,
representative examples of the full range of natural ecosystems should
be protected.
3) The League has supported passage and implementation of the
federal Endangered Species Act, including listing of plant and animal
species, protection of habitat, vigorous enforcement of regulations, and
the funding required to carry out the act.
4) Decisions to list a species under the Endangered Species
Act should be made solely on biological, rather than economic grounds.
5) Federal old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest should
be given special protection wherever old-growth values are incompatible
with timber harvest. These forests should be managed to protect
old-growth-dependent species through new management standards that
minimize fragmentation of old-growth stands into smaller tracts;
preserve migration corridors among stands; and maintain existing
old-growth attributes, including dependent plant and animal communities.
The old-growth conservation strategy recommended by the Interagency
Scientific Committee should be implemented fully to protect the
threatened northern spotted owl. Harvests of old-growth stands at
nonsustainable levels should not be mandated by law, nor should Congress
limit judicial review of federal forest management.
6) The League supports a moratorium on commercial harvest of
endangered whale species and a halt to importation of fisheries products
from any nation refusing to abide by international whaling accords. (back
to top)
1) The League recognizes the intrinsic value of predatory
species and their important ecological roles.
2) There is no justification for widespread destruction of
animals classed as predators.
3) Authority for predator control should reside with wildlife
management agencies rather than with agricultural agencies.
4) Predator control should be conducted professionally on a
discriminate basis, focused on animals shown to be undesirable in
specific instances. Nontarget species must be protected.
5) The use of poisons to control predators should be
outlawed, except for emergency use by qualified person-nel. Secondary
toxicants should be banned.
6) The League opposes payment of bounties on predators or
varmints.
7) The League supports the reintroduction of predator species
where appropriate to restore an ecological balance, as with the
controlled reintroduction of wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem. (back
to top)
The League's firearm
policy
1) Law-abiding citizens have a constitutional right to own
and use firearms.
2) The League opposes legislation or other action that would
require the general registration of firearms.
3) The League supports efforts to prevent firearms sales to,
or possession by, felons or people found by a court of law to be
mentally incompetent or insane and sales to people under the age of 18.
4) The League supports laws establishing severe and mandatory
penalties for the use of firearms in the commission of any crime and
severe penalties for flagrant misuse of firearms in any way. We oppose
attempts to classify criminal activities as health care issues.
5) The League opposes federal controls on commerce in
firearms and related equipment that restrict the lawful activities of
private gun collectors, part-time dealers, gunsmiths, hobbyists or
black-powder users, or harassment of commercial dealers and
manufacturers. We oppose taxing firearms to pay for any problems other
than sound conservation programs and research.
6) Although millions of semi-automatic firearms are used
legally and routinely for recreation, some legislative proposals fail to
distinguish "assault weapons" from other semiautomatic
firearms and would ban or restrict the legitimate use of semi-automatic
sporting arms. The League calls on Congress and other legislatures to
reject such proposals restricting the possession and use of
semi-automatic firearms.
7) The League supports state legislation to protect shooting
ranges that conform to safe and generally accepted operation practices
from "nuisance" lawsuits or civil liability caused by natural
and foreseeable risks and conditions; supports the creation of state
commissions to help define range liability; and opposes zoning changes
that would close ranges in operation before the change of law. (back
to top)
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