National News

To enhance communication and collaboration across the Izaak Walton League, national leaders host quarterly Zoom meetings with chapter and division officers and national directors.

In 2025, Zoom meetings will be held on April 2, July 1 and October 7 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, 6:30 p.m. Central, 5:30 p.m. Mountain and 4:30 p.m. Pacific. Please save these dates on your calendar.

These meetings provide all participants with the opportunity to share updates about upcoming events, deadlines, projects and other operational details. They also provide a forum for leaders at all levels to discuss strategic issues or explore particular topics in more detail.

In 2025, in addition to timely updates, each meeting will focus on a specific topic drawn from topics suggested by chapter and division officers and national directors. The national office has solicited input on topics over the past two years and several topics of interest have been identified.

Thank you for all you do for the League every day, and we look forward to the first quarterly Zoom meeting on April 2.

Dale Braun
Chair, Executive Board

Jodi Labs
National President

In a few months, members of the Izaak Walton League from across the country will gather in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the 2025 national convention. The theme of this year's convention is Defending America's Great Outdoors: A Promise to Future Generations.

Monthly emails like this one will provide the information you need to plan your trip to convention, along with timely updates about speakers, the schedule and important deadlines for chapter delegates and other attendees.  

Action-Packed Two-Day Schedule

The convention follows a two-day format on Friday, July 18, and Saturday, July 19. The Early Bird Welcome Reception will be Thursday evening, July 17. The Executive Board and Endowment Board will also meet on Thursday, July 17. The local host committee is planning optional events before and after convention. Stay tuned for more information about these exciting activities.

The two-day schedule includes all of the traditional convention business, including national officer and Executive Board elections, votes on policy resolutions, national and membership awards and speakers. Workshops will be offered virtually on a date to be determined.

In the months ahead, the national office will provide convention-related information via email, in Outdoor America magazine, in a printed convention kit, and on the national website.

Make Hotel Room Reservations Early

The convention will be held at the Tundra Lodge Resort, Water Park and Conference Center. The Tundra Lodge is located in the heart of the Stadium District only four blocks from legendary Lambeau Field. It includes two restaurants and a poolside bar, and guests enjoy free Wi-Fi in every room and complimentary parking. The main attraction for kids of all ages is the 30,000-square-foot waterpark with everything from towering water slides to a lazy river.

To reserve your room at the League’s discounted group rate, you must call the hotel directly at (877) 886-3725. This is not a chain hotel and because there are different room options and prices vary for room type based on the day of the week, reserving a room online is not feasible. When calling the hotel, tell the reservation staff you want to make a reservation for the Izaak Walton League national convention in July, and this will notify them to provide you with the League’s group rate.

Before calling the hotel to reserve your room, see detailed information about room types and nightly rates. PLEASE NOTE: All of the "King Suite" rooms in the League's room block are sold out. The League’s discounted rates are good Tuesday, July 15, through Monday, July 21, 2025 subject to availability.

Key Deadlines

National Awards: The deadline for submitting nominations for the Judge John Tobin and Defenders Chapter Achievement awards is March 15, 2025. Nominations for all other national awards are due to the national office no later than June 1, 2025. Please remember that nominations for some national awards require division approval before the nominations are submitted to the national office. Visit the national website for more information about each award and to download nomination forms. If you have questions regarding the awards process, please contact League Chapter Relations staff by calling (800) 453-5463 x216 or e-mailing awards@iwla.org.

Proposed amendments to the national bylaws: Pursuant to the national bylaws, any proposal to amend the national bylaws must be received by the national office and chair of the Governance and Bylaws Committee no later than June 3, 2025. Proposed amendments should be emailed to Scott Kovarovics (skovarovics@iwla.org) at the national office and Jeff Deschamps (jeff.deschamps@verizon.net), chair of the committee.

Other deadlines, including for officer nominations and chapter delegate registration, will be highlighted in future emails, on the national website and in the printed convention kit.

National Officer Positions

 At the national convention, chapter delegates will elect national officers for one-year terms. National directors will vote separately for members of the Executive Board. During the Midwinter Board of Directors meeting earlier this month, the following people announced their intention to run for national offices in 2025:

·         Executive Board: Rick Cerwick (IA), Dale Braun (IA) and Brenda Swartz (OH)

·         President: Herbert Pritchett, Sr. (VA)

·         Vice President: Scott Meyer (MN) and Jim Storer (OH)

Officers currently serving in the positions below announced they would not run for these positions in 2025. League members interested in serving in any officer position, including Treasurer or Secretary, are encouraged to submit nomination forms this spring (forms will be available in the printed convention kit and on the national website).

Treasurer: Any League member in good standing can run for this position. The Treasurer provides broad-based oversight of the League’s finances, including its annual budget, audit and tax filings and investments. The Treasurer does not need to be a CPA or financial professional. However, someone in this position must be comfortable enough with financial information to collaborate with League staff on financial management and communicate financial information to Board members, chapter and division leaders and members. The Treasurer is elected for a one-year term and also serves as a member of the Executive Board during their term.

Secretary: Any League member in good standing can run for this position. The Secretary’s primary responsibility is maintaining minutes of Executive Board and Board of Directors meetings. Someone in this position must have attention to detail and produce timely minutes for review and approval. The Secretary is elected for a one-year term and also serves as a member of the Executive Board during their term.

Watch your inbox for monthly convention updates – and mark your calendar for our 2025 national convention, happening July 18-19 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I'll see you there.

Day 1

Ikes from across the country arrived in Cambridge, Maryland, for the League's national convention. Here's a recap of what happened as the convention officially opened on Monday.

Presiding over the opening general session, League National President Jodi Labs welcomed a crowd that included many first-time attendees from across the United States. Jodi recognized the League's tendency for modesty and congratulated Ikes for breaking that pattern this year. Members and chapters "made a lot of noise," she said, especially about the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, which the League led a campaign to protect 100 years ago.

The proposed plan to eliminate the vast wetlands around the Upper Mississippi were deemed "the drainage crime of the century" by early League members. Now, Jodi said, the loss of small wetlands all over the country is "the new drainage crime of the century." In the face of Supreme Court decisions that are accelerating this loss, "volunteer science is even more important," Jodi said, and the League should again lead the fight to defend America's natural resources. Members can learn more about this topic in Outdoor America magazine and in the "Conservation Currents" e-newsletter.

Ahead of the lunchtime ceremony to present awards to many deserving members, chapters and League allies, Jodi gave a special shout-out to Renae Hansen of the McCook Lake Chapter (South Dakota), who helped the community recover following devastating flooding near Sioux City at the end of June. While official agencies struggled to respond, Renae and the chapter served as a hub for people to get things they needed, including food and cleaning supplies.

On the subject of being of service to the community, Jodi encouraged Ikes to “be inclusive” and open our chapters to broader audiences. Access to nature is beneficial to everyone, Jodi noted, yet nature is not readily available to everyone. “What demographic in your community is underserved when it comes to outdoor recreation?" Jodi asked. "How can we get them in the door?”

Following those inspiring points, Executive Director Scott Kovarovics provided an additional report on what the League has already accomplished. In a presentation showing measurable progress against the vision statement that then-President Vicki Arnold presented at the Convention in 2022, Scott reminded us that the vision is not “full of gauzy platitudes,” but rather is an actionable roadmap for achieving the organization's goals.

"Monitoring is a means to an end, not an end in itself," Scott said. The Clean Water Hub, which makes monitoring data available to decision-makers and the general public, is a great resource for education and advocacy. The national office also offers other resources to help volunteers with advocacy work. For example, a pair of new toolkits walk chapters through the process of engaging their communities in Salt Watch and Nitrate Watch.

"Water Is a Lifeline"

Benita Best-Wong, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, delivered a stirring keynote about our precious natural resources and our power to protect them.

“We need the Izaak Walton League,” she said. “We need your network, we need the programs you have in order to achieve water quality standards.”

Best-Wong described some of the regulatory and environmental challenges facing the nation’s waterways and drinking water. She said volunteer water quality monitoring is “more important than ever” in terms of understanding threats to water quality and advocacy for clean water.

She expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court's Sackett v. EPA decision, saying it will “erode long-standing Clean Water Act protections” for wetlands. The Environmental Protection Agency will “look for innovative ways to address water problems” and will “continue to follow the science and follow the law.”

Responding to a question from Executive Director Scott Kovarovics about increasing public awareness of the impact of the Sackett decision on sources of drinking water, Best-Wong agreed that government agencies “need to do a better job of making those connections.” The Assistant Administrator answered questions from the convention participants and had conversations with a half dozen League members after her keynote address.  

A Visit from Will Dilg

To an enthusiastic audience who gave the performer a standing ovation at the end, Steven Marking presented a live version of his narrative about the creation of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

“A Visit from Will Dilg” combines the impassioned words and stories of Dilg, one of the League’s founders and the chief force behind the successful, precedent-setting campaign to protect the wetlands in the region through congressional action in 1924.

After the Convention, the national office will email chapters and divisions with updated information about how they can access the film version of "A Visit from Will Dilg" and show this inspiring presentation at a meeting or event.

National Officer Elections

Finally, the League members present at convention on Monday elected a slate of national officers:

·         National President - Jodi Labs

·         National Vice President - Herbert Pritchett, Sr.

·         National Secretary - Jim Storer

·         National Treasurer - Scott Meyer

Much more is still to come as the convention continues through its new two-day format. Tomorrow's highlights include:

·         Presentation from the Youth Convention

·         Executive Board elections

·         Restoring Our Great Waters: Panel Discussion

·         Voting on resolutions

·         Closing banquet, featuring the Harriet Tubman Experience

Day 2

On the closing day of the League's national convention, Ikes enjoyed fascinating presentations from a variety of experts. They also participated in our tradition of bottom-up governance by voting on policy resolutions. Here's a recap of what happened on Tuesday.

National Youth Convention

The Youth Convention attendees stopped by the general session to present a brief summary of their adventures. On Sunday night, the young Ikes reported, they enjoyed a pizza party meet-and-greet with icebreaker games. On Monday, they went to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, where they saw different kinds of boats and learned about the traditional "three sisters" planting method. They then paused for lunch under a lighthouse before boarding a ferry for a brief cruise to an ice cream shop.

On Tuesday, the youth said, they would visit Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the oyster hatchery at Horn Point Laboratory. On behalf of the Youth Convention, the Youth President thanked the national office, the Izaak Walton League Endowment, the Maryland Division, and all the donors who made it possible for them to see fascinating sites around the Chesapeake Bay this week.

Izaak Walton League of America Endowment Meeting

Endowment Treasurer Craig Enneking reported that 25 grants were awarded this year, totaling $116,364. Secretary George Guyant recognized the donors who make these gifts possible by showing consistent support to the Endowment year after year.

Endowment President Patty Nunn reminded the audience that every member of the League is a member of the Endowment. She encouraged chapters to contact Endowment board members for advice on submitting grant applications.

Water Experts from Three Regions Face Similar Challenges

Convention participants on Tuesday heard from three experts in three regions who discussed habitat restoration, invasive species, nonpoint-source pollution and other challenges centered around the League’s theme for the gathering, “Restoring Our Great Waters.”

Peter Tango, monitoring coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Program (shown above), discussed three cross-cutting problems—excess nutrients that contribute to a “summer dead zone” in the Bay, heat and flooding attributed to climate change, and toxic chemicals that impair about 70 percent of the Bay. A number of programs are in place to address the challenges, and Tango said “monitoring is key.”

Teresa Seidel is director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office. Given the long legacy of pollution in the region, the agency is concerned about chemical pollution, climate change and invasive species. Working with other agencies, Seidel's office focuses on specific areas of concern for restoration efforts. The Great Lakes account for roughly one-fifth of the surface freshwater on Earth.

It would help if more people who live in the vast Mississippi River watershed understood and identified with that “sense of place,” says Jeff Janvrin, Mississippi River Habitat Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. That might motivate more action to improve the region.

Through its leadership in creating the Upper Mississippi Refuge, followed by legal actions in the 1970s, the League has already had an impact on environmental management in the region. Of course, challenges remain and multiple programs are in place to address them. Echoing the “all of the above” approach described by EPA Assistant Administrator Benita Best-Wong on Monday, Janvrin said “there is no single tool that will fix the ecosystem.”

Successes Amidst Change in Wildlife Refuges

At the conservation lunch, the League heard inspiring stories from Marcia Pradines Long, refuge manager and project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Long pointed to success with a variety of previously threatened species, like bald eagles and the Delmarva fox squirrel, in the nearby Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge as well as eradication (with years of help from the Izaak Walton League) of the invasive nutria population. At the same time, the Refuge faces loss of habitat due to rising sea levels, which the Refuge staff are working to mitigate by preserving vital habitat.

Also during the conservation lunch, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) presented the Distinguished Conservation Service Award Certificate to the Izaak Walton League. The award recognizes “demonstrated leadership and a commitment to the education of youth on a regional, national or international level.” The BSA citation states, in part, that “the Izaak Walton League of America provides a valuable gateway to the outdoors for thousands of Scouts and all Americans who enjoy fishing, hunting, shooting sports, boating, birding, and other outdoor activities.”

Separately, Earl Hower, the League’s Director of Chapter Relations, was awarded a Distinguished Conservationist Award for many years of conservation work that includes programs for youth.

League Members Vote on Resolutions

Delegates representing League chapters debated and voted on two resolutions addressing conservation issues.  The delegates first engaged in passionate debate on how shipping traffic would be impacted if the League successfully advocated for the regulations contemplated by a resolution regarding best practices for dredging. An amendment to delete one of the provisions in the resolution passed on a tally vote. The amended resolution was then adopted on a voice vote.

A resolution to incentivize alternatives to gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment, which didn't pass last year, was again the subject of vigorous debate. After several comments for and against the proposal, the resolution was rejected on a ballot vote.

The resolution that was adopted will be officially added to the League's policy handbook in the coming weeks. It will also appear in the next issue of Outdoor America.

Convention Site Report

As the 2024 convention drew to a close, League President Jodi Labs presented information about the 2025 convention, which will be in her home city of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The event will be held July 17-19, following a two-day format plus an Early Bird reception on the preceding evening. The location is a great destination for families, Jodi said, including hotel amenities for all ages and abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation. Opportunities for fishing in the Great Lakes drew great interest from the members in attendance.

Ken Lefebvre of the Maryland Division announced that the 2026 convention will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The location for the 2027 Convention will be determined during the 2025 convention.

Closing Business

In accordance with League tradition, the attendees at the convention enthusiastically approved a resolution thanking the Maryland Division for their hospitality.

The Ikes in the room also offered a spontaneous round of applause in response to President Labs mentioning that the convention organizers worked hard this year to reduce the carbon footprint of the event.  Be sure to watch your mailbox for the next issue of Outdoor America, which will contain more convention highlights, including a full explanation of the adopted resolution, awards and the Endowment Board elections. And don't forget to mark your calendar for our 2025 convention in Green Bay, July 17-19!