Media advisory: Water policy experts from across the U.S. gather in Cambridge, Md. July 15-16 to discuss challenges facing the nation’s waterways including the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and Mississippi River at the Izaak Walton League’s 2024 annual convention.
Experts from the EPA, the Chesapeake Bay Program, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will be among the speakers. The theme of the convention is: Restoring Our Great Waters – Taking Action Today to Secure a Better Future.
The keynote Monday morning will be given by Benita Best-Wong, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Water. She will address topics including investing in clean water, Waters of the US, volunteer science and an all-of-the-above approach to solving the nation’s clean water challenges.
Media are welcome. Contact: Michael Reinemer, Izaak Walton League of America, mreinemer@iwla.org, 301-548-0150 ext 220.
Other Speakers:
- Peter Tango, Chesapeake Bay Program, Monitoring Coordinator
- Teresa Seidel, EPA, Director, Great Lakes National Program Office
- Marcia Pradines Long, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex Project Leader
- Jeff Janvrin, Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources Mississippi River Habitat Specialist
- Millicent Sparks portrays the abolitionist, “Harriet Tubman: Living History Experience”
What: Annual convention Izaak Walton League of America, national conservation group
When: July 15-16, 2024
Where: Cambridge, Md. Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort
In 2024, the Izaak Walton League is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its successful campaign to save the wetlands along the upper Mississippi, which created the template for the modern conservation movement. Today, the League continues its mission of protecting the nation’s woods, waters and wildlife and preserving wild places like wetlands, which lost protections due to the 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision. Facing headwinds, whether from court decisions or the growing array of pollutants in our waterways, the League presses for better conservation policies and mobilizes local volunteers who monitor and stop pollution at its source through programs like Salt Watch and Nitrate Watch.
Schedule MONDAY July 15
9:00 am – Welcome by Jodi Labs, national president, and Cherie Aker, president, Maryland Division
11:00 am – Keynote: Benita Best-Wong, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator
Best-Wong works on policy in the EPA Office of Water. She has devoted her career to restoring and protecting fresh and marine water through watershed planning, water quality assessment and monitoring, source water and groundwater protection, permitting, partnerships and implementation of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.
12:30 pm – Awards Lunch: Recognition for members and chapters for achievements in conservation, outdoor recreation. A national youth organization is scheduled to give the League a conservation award at this event.
2:00 pm – Steven Marking, A Visit from Will Dilg
Drawing on impassioned editorials in Outdoor America magazine, Steven Marking brings League founder Will Dilg to life describing the imperiled environment along the Mississippi River in the early 1920s and the League’s precedent-setting campaign to convince Congress to establish the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in 1924.
Schedule TUESDAY, July 16
9:15 am – Presentation by participants in the League’s Youth Convention presentation, scholarship announcements and Izaak Walton League Endowment meeting
10:30 am – Board of Directors Meeting
11:15 am – Restoring Our Great Waters Panel Discussion
Experts discuss vital issues about the future health of the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and upper Mississippi River and the needed changes to policy or funding to meet the challenges.
- Jeff Janvrin, Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources Mississippi River Habitat Specialist
- Teresa Seidel, EPA, Director, Great Lakes National Program Office
- Peter Tango, Chesapeake Bay Program, Monitoring Coordinator
1:15 pm – Marcia Pradines Long, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex Project Leader
Long oversees management of several national refuges, including Blackwater NWR on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She will highlight opportunities and challenges facing refuges.
2:00 pm –Resolutions Committee report, vote on resolutions, other business.
7:00 pm – “Harriet Tubman: Living History Experience”
Millicent Sparks’ portrayal of Harriet Tubman blends accounts of events in Tubman’s life with an acute sense of Tubman’s personal qualities. Tubman’s legacy is rooted in Maryland, from her early life on the Eastern Shore to her extraordinary bravery as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad freeing more than 70 enslaved people over a 10-year period.
Founded in 1922, the Izaak Walton League fights for clean air and water, healthy fish and wildlife habitat and conservation of our natural resources for future generations. The League plays a unique role in supporting community-based science and local conservation and has a long legacy of shaping sound national policy. See www.iwla.org.