Izaak Walton League of America

As the U.S. Senate debates the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers this week, prominent sportsman-conservation groups roundly criticized an amendment that would defund the administration’s work on Clean Water Act guidance that is crucial to sustaining wetlands and waterways.

Congressman Ron Kind (WI) and Senator Mark Udall (CO) introduced the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act today to support state, local and federal strategies to connect youth and families with the natural world, improve children’s health and support future economic growth and conservation efforts. This legislation will help get Americans active outdoors through natural play; outdoor recreation such as camping, hiking, hunting and fishing; public health initiatives; outdoor learning environments; service learning and other initiatives.

This weekend’s selection of the 2012 Federal Duck Stamp art contest winner – whose work will appear on stamps purchased by every duck hunter in America – puts a spotlight on the nation’s troubled wetland ecosystems. The Izaak Walton League, National Wildlife Federation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and Trout Unlimited support restoring Clean Water Act protections for wetlands and other waters that are critical to fish and wildlife populations and our outdoor traditions.

The Izaak Walton League of America today urged decision makers to include a no-cost “Conservation Compliance” stipulation in recommendations to the Super Committee to protect America’s farmland, water and wildlife.

A national coalition of 56 policy and advocacy organizations – including the Izaak Walton League of America – is urging Congress to preserve funding for essential U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs and take additional steps to enhance soil, water quality and wildlife on agricultural land. The coalition outlined a set of key principles that lawmakers should observe as they write the Conservation Title of the 2012 Farm Bill and seek ways to trim the federal deficit.

Today, more than 250 hunter, angler, and conservation groups from 28 states voiced their support for protecting the health of America’s water resources. In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers, the groups stated that they strongly support the agencies’ efforts to clarify which “waters of the United States” are protected by the Clean Water Act.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve sweeping, harmful changes to the nation’s bedrock water-quality protecting law, the Clean Water Act.

The U.S. House of Representatives today struck a double blow against efforts to restore Clean Water Act protections for streams that supply drinking water to 117 million Americans and wetlands that provide flood protection and critical fish and wildlife habitat.

As Marcellus Shale gas development increases at a rapid pace and scale across northern Appalachia, sportsmen and women in the region have joined forces and created an alliance to urge state and federal agencies and the energy industry to protect long-held hunting, fishing and trapping traditions.

The nation’s top sportsmen’s organizations, including the Izaak Walton League of America, applaud the Obama administration for taking an important step to begin restoring Clean Water Act protections to streams and wetlands. These waters provide critical habitat to fish and wildlife, flood control, drinking water and many other benefits.