DONATE NOW Our 2nd Century Campaign to Save Outdoor America
League logo Our 2nd Century Campaign
to Save Outdoor America DONATE NOW



As the Izaak Walton League embarks on our second century, we can take pride in tangible progress cleaning up our air and water, conserving public land in national parks and engaging generations of Americans in citizen science.

However, our environmental problems have not been solved – they have evolved.

Polluted runoff from roads, farms, lawns and construction sites contaminates our drinking water, streams and lakes.

Soil erosion and rapidly declining soil health jeopardize the future of our food supply.

Impacts of climate change – from floods to wildfires – pose urgent threats to natural resources, our economy and our way of life.

By building on our strengths – from local community action to national policy advocacy, the League can help address these challenges. Success will require hard work, major investment and time.

This is our calling for the League’s 2nd Century ...




Building on Our Strengths: Community-Based Conservation and Citizen Science

Community-based conservation and citizen science are the cornerstones on which the League was built. With our time-tested approach, the League will engage more Americans and tackle the serious challenges ahead.

Citizen Science 2.0 – Using technology and a crowd-sourced model, the League is making it easier for more people to test for pollution in local waters. Explosive growth in volunteer participation in Salt Watch is just one example.

Turning Data into Action – Testing for water pollution is a means to an end. We will leverage test results from volunteers to reduce pollution at its source, clean up degraded waters and mobilize a new generation of clean water advocates.

Driving Change from the Bottom Up – To change policies, behavior and land uses that contribute to pollution, the League will help local groups develop and execute strategies to solve environmental challenges.




Building on Our Strengths: Advocacy for Common Sense Conservation

Although much of our work begins in local communities, it does not end there. As we look to the future, policy advocacy will be one of the ways the League achieves our broader mission.

Comprehensive Approach to Conservation – Climate change, polluted runoff and the spread of invasive plants and animals are not localized problems – they affect entire landscapes. Our advocacy will shape national and regional policies to protect and restore natural resources.

Revolutionizing Agriculture – America’s farms feed the nation, but agriculture is also the largest source of polluted runoff. Meanwhile, declining soil health jeopardizes our food supply. League policies can help solve these problems by scaling up conservation on tens of millions of acres – from the Midwest breadbasket to farms near cities and suburbs.

Expanding Grassroots Engagement – We will engage League members, citizen scientists and other Americans to ensure every advocacy campaign has a grassroots component to secure policy wins.




Building on Our Strengths: Connecting People to the Outdoors

The League is uniquely positioned to reconnect Americans to the natural world and foster the next generation of conservationists, hunters and anglers.

Gateway to the Outdoors – Engagement in fishing and hunting, shooting sports, and camping and hiking has declined in our increasingly virtual world. Through community outreach, public events like fishing derbies and local conservation projects, more than 200 League chapters will connect people to nature and grow participation in outdoor recreation.

Conservation for Everyone – From sharing a Stream Selfie on social media to joining a chapter-organized clean-up, the League offers many ways to get involved in conservation. By helping people appreciate that their actions have meaningful impact, we will engage future citizen scientists, policy advocates and League members.




Your Role in the 2nd Century Campaign

You can play an important part in our work – collecting evidence as a citizen scientist, advocating for common sense policies and sharing your passion with friends and family.

You can also invest in your and your children’s future – with a tax-deductible gift to the Izaak Walton League of America.

Your generosity will:

Expand Support for the Grassroots – Your gift will help us increase staff capacity to support and coordinate regional volunteer networks – improving our ability to effect change on the ground.

Ramp Up Policy Advocacy – Your support will help us expand national lobbying capacity, design grassroots campaigns to advance League priorities and be an advocacy resource for local groups.

Deliver Tools and Training – Your donation will provide more testing resources, such as Salt Watch test kits, and expand community-based training to make it easy for more Americans to get – and stay – involved in conservation.

Leverage Technology – Your investment will enable upgrades to our Clean Water Hub national website and mobile phone apps that help volunteers collect and share water quality test results – the key to a crowd-sourced, data-to-action solution!




Our Mandate for the League's Second Century

As the Izaak Walton League of America embarks on our second century of conservation leadership, members and supporters can take tremendous pride in all that the organization and generations of Ikes have accomplished.

As we move forward from our 100th anniversary, it is crucial that we not only celebrate our past, but we also learn from it. Our founders knew the future was troubling. They didn’t ask if they could save outdoor America for generations to come – they believed they could and they got to work.

Once again, the future is our focus. Like the early Ikes, we cannot ask if we can save outdoor America for our children and grandchildren. We know we can.