The Florida Keys Chapter was established in 1962, to enable local residents to learn about our natural resources and participate in decisions relating to their area of interest, the Florida Keys. Our members include both residents of the Florida Keys and people living in other areas who care about this special place. If you share that concern, we welcome your participation in our conservation activities.
Today we are particularly involved in issues relating to Everglades Restoration, clean water, energy and sustainability.
The Florida Keys Chapter now has a house on Key Largo, which we are working to make into an environmental demonstration home, to show how Keys residents can make their homes more energy- and water-efficient. If we are going to "talk the talk," and urge people in our community to conserve electricity and water, we also need to "walk the walk," by doing that ourselves, and this is our opportunity to do that.
We invite all who care about the Keys' natural resources to join us in our efforts. You do NOT have to be a Keys resident to be a member. Most of our members actually live outside of the Florida Keys, but share our concern for the health of the coral reefs, hardwood hammocks, endangered and migratory species, Florida Bay, and the Everglades. If you would like more information about joining, please visit our Membership page.
Throughout the year, the Florida Keys Chapter is involved in various events to educate the public about our natural resources. Information about those events is available on the Programs/Activities page or in our chapter newsletter. We will attempt to post recent newsletters on this page, or you can sign up to receive the newsletter by e-mail, even if you are not a chapter member. Send a request to be added to our newsletter mailing list by sending an e-mail to us at floridakeysiwla@gmail.com.
The Izaak Walton League of America is one of America's oldest national conservation organizations, having started in 1922. It was the first large, broad-scope organization, looking at natural resource issues from a wide national perspective. The older organizations, Audubon and Sierra, have expanded their area of interest since that time, but the League led the way. The League also was a pioneer in the acquisition and pooling of land for conservation purposes and played a key role in the establishment of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota. The League has a reputation for finding sensible, practical and effective solutions to difficult natural resource issues.
The League's national conservation headquarters is in Gaithersburg, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. From there, the League's highly qualified staff communicates with its 250 chapters and relays their concerns to Congress and many administrative agencies. Because the League has good representations of hunters and fishermen in its membership, it occupies a key role in the national conservation community, sharing concerns with both the "hook and bullet" crowd of groups like Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Society and the "green" organizations like Audubon and Sierra. The League or its leaders have also been active in other conservation groups like the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
At its national headquarters, the League coordinates chapter and membership issues, carries out its Clean Water, Outdoor Ethics, Sustainability and Legislative activities, and houses its administrative offices.
The League also has a midwest office in St. Paul, Minnesota, from which it manages the Energy, Agriculture, Clean Air, Upper Mississippi, and Public Lands programs. Until recently, the midwest office has also been the home to "Wind on the Wires", an organization focused on getting sufficient transmission capacity for the growing wind power generated electricity in the midwest. That organization was recently "spun off" with its own identity.
Also in the midwest we have a League staff person appointed to the Mr. Ric project (Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee) working on Missouri River issues. This position provides the League with an excellent vantage point from which to influence ongoing federal agency efforts to restore the Missouri River.
Your participation as a League member is invited. Join us. If you have any questions, call us.