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Chapter I. Sustainable Use of Resources

Since its inception, the Izaak Walton League has recognized that people are an integral part of the natural world, subject to the same natural laws, requirements, and controls as other animal species. At the same time, people are unique due to the relative speed with which we can alter the biosphere, and due to our ability to see the consequences of our impact. Because of this, the League believes that people can and must play a stewardship role in conserving natural resources and systems on local, national, and global levels. Although League policies often address specific, timesensitive issues, they historically reflect these broader understandings. By 1965, the League began to consider human ecology directly, speaking out about the ultimate human carrying capacity of the nation and the Earth in its policies.

• A) Sustainability
  • 1) 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 social and environmental problems. Unrestricted growth threatens quality of life, natural surroundings, and social and economic aspirations. Longterm growth choices often are made by default. As 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 the development of a national growth policy that would:
    • a) Promote productive equilibrium between people and the environment by bringing population and consumption into balance with the resource base.
    • b) Recognize that quantity and quality are not always mutually attainable.
    • c) 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.
    • d) Provide all segments of the population with opportunities to achieve lives of quality and dignity.
    • e) Ensure that long-range growth implications of program and budgetary choices are centrally considered during public decision- making.
    • f) Ensure that the long-term productivity and carrying capacity of America’s resources are not sacrificed for short-term uses.
    • g) Urge planners at all levels of local, state, and federal government to develop long-term strategies that preserve the quality and diversity of outdoor recreational experiences essential to the human spirit.
    • h) Urge individuals, institutions, and governments to promote education for sustainability that addresses lifelong learning, interdisciplinary approaches, partnerships, and multicultural perspectives.
    • i) Encourage government-wide adoption and implementation of community-based planning principles that address community sustainability.
    • j) Call on state legislatures and local governments to support comprehensive and coordinated land-use planning that requires objective evaluation of environmental impacts of proposed development, prior to issuance of requisite permits or approvals.
    • k) Encourage all levels of government, working in partnership with the citizens, to adopt and implement community-based planning principles that address sustainability through comprehensive public accounting of short- and long-term social, economic, and environmental costs and benefits.
    • l) Educate people of all ages about the stewardship of natural resources.
    • m) Encourage broad participation in sustainability practices.
• B) Economic Reform
  • 1) The League calls on all levels of government to promote economic reforms that would:
    • a) Reflect the true costs of natural resource extraction, transportation, processing, consumption, and waste while avoiding a disproportionate burden on lower-income individuals and families.
    • b) Eliminate subsidies for economic activities that distort a true measure of economic efficiency or damage the environment, and enhance subsidies that promote conservation.
    • c) Develop and use indicators and methodologies that measure the interactions among the economy, society, environment, and natural resource base.
  • 2) Controlling pollution also will require fundamental changes in the ways our government and our economy view and account for environmental degradation. We must recognize that environmental costs are real costs, that they now are being paid by the public in ill health, shortened lives, lost recreational opportunities, and publicly funded cleanups. 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 businesses and consumers tend to clean up our environment. To reach that goal, the Izaak Walton League has called for setting discharge limits at levels that will meet or exceed society’s environmental goals. In this way, pollution is prevented, the environment is protected from further damage, and the costs of cleanup are built into the price structure so that market choices fully reflect environmental costs.
• C) Population
  • 1) Because of the environmental impacts of population growth and movement on finite natural resources, the League urges governments and private agencies to conduct scientific research and 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:
    • a) Development of a national policy on population and natural resources that integrates population, natural resources, and technology.
    • b) Incorporation of sustainable development principles in U.S. policies, both foreign and domestic.
    • c) Development of goals for stabilizing populations that incorporate the principles of sustainable economic development, social equity, education, basic and reproductive health care (including family planning), and environmental conservation.
    • d) Dissemination of family-planning or contraceptive information to all segments of society.
    • e) Providing age-appropriate education on human development, reproduction, and the relationship between people and the environment for people of all ages, especially students in grades K–12.
    • f) Supporting national and international efforts to stabilize population through funding for family planning and by promoting equality between men and women.
  • 2) The League supports the right of individuals to freely choose methods of fertility control consistent with the dictates of individual conscience and accepted medical practice. The League neither advocates nor opposes abortion.
• D) Resource Consumption
  • 1) The United States increasingly faces critical shortages in renewable and nonrenewable resources, including farmlands, forest resources, fossil fuels, important metals and minerals, and even water. Extraction and consumption of these resources cannot be sustained at present rates without unacceptable impairment of environmental quality and reduced productivity of lands and waters traditionally used for agricultural and wildlife purposes. Therefore, the League urges the government to develop resource utilization policies that:
    • a) 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.
    • b) Generally reduce demand for and consumption of scarce resources.
    • c) Encourage resource recovery, recycling, and reuse.
    • d) Identify priority uses for scarce resources.
    • e) Encourage technological developments that increase efficiency while reducing the environmental impacts of resource extraction and processing.
    • f) Integrate demographic data into resource decision-making.
    • g) Direct foreign aid to sustainable projects.
    • h) Promote practices that reduce consumption and waste.
    • i) Support stewardship among nations in resource use.
    • j) Encourage all levels of government to promote and practice full recycling of all nonrenewable and scarce resources, and to develop and adopt technologies to do so
• E) Urban Sustainability and Sprawl
  1. The League supports federal funding for an urban forestry program within the U.S. Forest Service that would provide grants and technical assistance to cities for planting, maintaining, and protecting trees and shrubs and related natural resources.
  2. The League supports the use of federal grants to local governments for the acquisition and development of urban open space, park and recreation facilities, and historic and cultural sites, buildings and facilities.
  3. The League opposes the establishment of “enterprise zones” that allow deviation from federal, state, or local regulations on health, safety or environmental protection.
  4. Urban sprawl has been shown to be supported by federal highway construction, tax breaks for buying new homes, and investments in new sewer and water systems. The League urges all levels of government to control urban sprawl, to review their decision-making process and programs that may contribute to sprawl, and to reduce the expansion of metropolitan areas in order to preserve farmland and open space.
  5. The League encourages industry-funded cleanup, with government involvement and new-owner contribution, of polluted industrial sites. Re-use of these “brownfields” provides jobs, increases the tax base, and eliminates unsightly dormant sites. Use of such sites can also protect nearby agricultural land from undesirable development. The League encourages regulatory agencies to institute a bonding surety mechanism for cleanup of contaminated abandoned brownfield sites where responsible parties cannot be found.
• F) Transportation
  • 1) The League encourages the implementation of transportation initiatives that will:
    • a) Improve the technology and materials used in construction and maintenance.
    • b) Provide an improved public transportation system to meet the needs of citizens in urban and rural areas.
    • c) Urge all levels of government to review their decision-making processes and fiscal policies with respect to all transportation programs, to ensure that they include an accurate assessment of social, economic, and environmental costs and benefits, including their potential contribution to sprawl.
    • d) Implement an education program that will create improved understanding of transportation impacts.
      e) Provide for safe movement of wildlife.
• G) The People’s Voice
  • a) Supports the continuation of federal policy that allows nonprofit organizations to participate in the policy-making process.
  • b) Urges federal, state, and local lawmakers to pass legislation that requires candidates to disclose all sources of financial support, requires public discussion of issues in free and open forums, and prohibits the use of “soft” money to influence elections.
  • c) Supports legislation that would encourage candidates in federal and state campaigns to voluntarily reject private money and limit their campaign spending, especially in those states that have established a publicly financed campaign fund.
  • d) Opposes any acts of ecoterrorism, violence, or illegal activities in the name of conservation.
  1. In the pursuit of conservation, the League supports the democratic right of citizens to be fully involved in the policy-making process and its implementation, guided by the values of credibility, integrity, and fairness. Accordingly, the League:
  2. The League supports the use of strict, joint, and several liability that allows victims to file suit to collect damages from all responsible parties, as well as doctrines that protect and preserve the victim’s right to full compensation. Legal incentives should encourage the use of best management practices for handling toxic and hazardous materials.
  3. Lawsuits designed to intimidate conservationists who oppose controversial developments should be dismissed. Congress should adopt legislation establishing the grounds for such dismissal and provide for recovery of court costs, attorney’s fees, and damages from the suing party in a dismissed intimidation lawsuit.
  4. The League affirms its support for openness in government and opposes any administrative or legislative restriction that could withhold public information about conservation and environmental issues that are plainly not a matter of national security.
  5. The League supports the power of local government units to enact pollution control measures more restrictive than federal laws.