Environmental Encyclopedia

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Environmental Encyclopedia 3

ISO 14000: International Environmental Management Standards

ESOURCES

OOKS

Harris, Larry D. The Fragmented Forest: Island Biogeography Theory and the

Preservation of Biotic Diversity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Mac Arthur, Robert H., and Edward O. Wilson.The Theory of Island

Biogeography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.

Quaman, David. Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction.

New York: Scribner, 1996.

Whittaker, Robert J. Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution and Conserva-

tion. London: Oxford University Press, 1999.

ERIODICALS

Grant, P. R. “Competition Exposed by Knight?” Nature 396: 216–217.

THER

“Island Biogeography.” University of Oxford School of Geography and the

Environment. August 7, 2000 [cited June 26, 2002]. <http://www.geog.ox.-

ac.uk/research/bie/islandbio/index.html>.

RGANIZATIONS

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue,

NW, Washington, DC USA 20460 (202) 260-2090, Email: public-

access@epa.gov, <http://www.epa.gov>

ISO 14000: International

Environmental Management

Standards

ISO 14000 refers to a series of environmental management

standards that were adopted by the International Organiza-

tion for Standardization (ISO) in 1996 and are beginning

to be implemented by businesses across the world. Any

person or organization interested in the

environment

and

in the goal of improving environmental performance of busi-

nesses should be interested in ISO 14000. Such interested

parties include businesses themselves, their legal representa-

tives, environmental organizations and their members, gov-

ernment officials, and others.

What is the ISO and what are ISO standards?

The International Organization for Standardization

(ISO) is a private (nongovernmental) worldwide organiza-

tion whose purpose is to promote uniform standards in inter-

national trade. Its members are elected representatives from

national standards organizations in 111 countries. The ISO

covers all fields involving promoting goods, services, or prod-

ucts and where a Member Body suggests that standardization

is desirable, with the exception of electrical and electronic

engineering, which are covered by a different organization

called the International Electrotechnical Commission

(IEC). However, the ISO and the IEC work closely to-

gether.

Since the ISO began operations in 1947, its Central

Secretariat has been located in Geneva, Switzerland. Be-

tween 1951 (when it published its first standard) and 1997,

the ISO issued over 8,800 standards. Standards are docu-

777

ments containing technical specifications, rules, guidelines,

and definitions to ensure equipment, products, and services

perform as specified.

Among the best known standards published by the

ISO are those that comprise the ISO 9000 series, which

was developed between 1979–1986, and published in 1987.

Because ISO 9000 is a forerunner to ISO 14000, it is impor-

tant to understand the basic structure and function of ISO

9000. The ISO 9000 series is a set of standards for quality

management and quality assurance. The standards apply to

processes and systems that produce products; they do not

apply to the products themselves. Further, the standards

provide a general framework for any industry; they are not

industry-specific. A company that has become registered

under ISO 9000 has demonstrated that it has a documented

system for quality that is in place and consistently applied.

ISO 9000 standards apply to all kinds of companies whether

large or small, in services or manufacturing.

The latest major set of standards published by the ISO

is the ISO 14000 series. The impetus for that series came

from the United Nations Conference on the Environment

and Development (UNCED), which was held in Rio De

Janeiro in 1992 and attended by representatives of over one

hundred nations. One of the documents resulting from that

conference was the Global Environmental Initiative, which

prompted the ISO to develop its ISO 14000 series of interna-

tional environmental standards. The ISO’s goal is to insure

that businesses adopt common internal procedures for envi-

ronmental controls including, but not limited to, audits. It

is important to note that the standards are process standards,

not performance standards. The goal is to ensure that busi-

nesses are in compliance with their own national and local

applicable environmental laws and regulations. The initial

standards in the series include numbers 14001, 14004, and

14010-14012; all of them adopted by the ISO in 1996.

Provisions of ISO 14000 Series standards

ISO 14000 sets up criteria pursuant to which a com-

pany may become registered or certified as to its environmen-

tal management practices.

Central to the process of registration pursuant to ISO

14000 is a company’s Environmental Management System

(EMS). The EMS is a set of procedures for assessing compli-

ance with environmental laws and company procedures for

environmental protection, identifying and resolving with

problems, and engaging the company’s workforce in a com-

mitment to improved environmental performance by the

company.

ISO 14001 series can be divided into two groups:

guidance documents and specification documents. The series

sets out standards against which a company’s EMS will be

evaluated. For example, it must include an accurate summary

of the legal standards with which the company must comply,

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

ISO 14000: International Environmental Management Standards

such as permit stipulations, and relevant provisions of stat-

utes and regulations, and even provisions of administrative

or court-certified consent judgments. To become certified,

the EMS must: (1) include an

environmental policy

; (2)

establish plans to meet environmental goals and comply with

legal requirements; (3) provide for implementation of the

policy and operation under it including training for person-

nel, communication, and document control; (4) set up moni-

toring and measurement devices and an audit procedure to

insure continuing improvement; and (5) provide for manage-

ment review. The EMS must be certified by a registrar who

has been qualified under ISO 13012, a standard that predates

the ISO 14000 series.

The ISO 14004 series is a guidance document that

gives advice that may be followed but is not required. It

includes five principles each of which corresponds to one of

the five areas of ISO 14001 listed above.

ISO 14010, 14011, and 14012 are auditing standards.

For example, 14010 covers general principles of

environ-

mental auditing

, and 14011 provides guidelines for

auditing of an Environmental Management System (EMS).

ISO 14012 provides guidelines for establishing qualifications

for environmental auditors, whether those auditors are inter-

nal or external.

Plans for additional standards within the ISO 14000 Se-

ries standards

The ISO is considering proposals for standards on

training and certifying independent auditors (called regis-

trars) who will certify that ISO 14000-certified business

have established and adhere to stringent internal systems to

monitor and improve their own environmental protection

actions. Later the ISO may also establish standards for as-

sessing a company’s environmental performance. Standards

may be adopted to for use of eco-labeling and

life cycle

assessment

of goods involved in international trade.

Benefits and consequences of ISO 14000 Series stan-

dards

A company contemplating obtaining ISO 14000 regis-

tration must evaluate its potential advantages as well as its

costs to the company.

ISO 14000 certification may bring various rewards to

companies. For example, many firms are hoping that, in

return for obtaining ISO 14000 certification (and the actions

required to do so), regulatory agencies such as the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) will give them

more favorable treatment. For example, leniency might be

shown in less stringent filing or monitoring requirements

or even less severe sanctions for past or present violations

of environmental statutes and regulations.

Further, compliance may be merely for good public

relations, leading consumers to view the certified company

778

as a good corporate citizen that works to protect the environ-

ment. There is public pressure on companies to demonstrate

their environmental stewardship and accountability; ob-

taining ISO 14000 certification is one way to do so.

The costs to the company will depend on the scope

of the Environmental Management System (EMS). For ex-

ample, the EMS might be international, national, or limited

to individual plants operated by the company. That decision

will affect the costs of the environmental audit considerably.

National and international systems may prove to be costly.

On the other hand, a company may realize cost savings.

For example, an insurance company may give reduced rates

on insurance to cover accidental

pollution

releases to a com-

pany that has a proven environmental management system

in place. Internally, by implementing an EMS, a company

may realize cost savings as a result of

waste reduction

, use

of less fewer toxic

chemicals

, less energy use, and

recycling

A major legal concern raised by lawyers studying the

ISO 14000 standards relates to the question of confidential-

ity. There are serious questions as to whether a governmental

regulatory agency can require disclosure of information dis-

covered during a self-audit by a company. The use of a

third-party auditor during preparation of the EMS process

may weaken a company’s argument that information discov-

ered is privileged.

ISO 14000 has potential consequences with respect

to international law as well as international trade. ISO 14000

is intended to promote a series of universally accepted EMS

practices and lead to consistency in environmental standards

between and among trading partners. Some developing

countries such as Mexico are reviewing ISO 14000 standards

and considering incorporating their provisions within their

own environmental laws and regulations. On the other hand,

some developing countries have suggested that environmen-

tal standards created by ISO 14000 may constitute non-

tariff barriers to trade in that costs of ISO 14000 registration

may be prohibitively high for small- to medium-size com-

panies.

Companies that have implemented ISO 9000 have

learned to view their companies’ operations through a “qual-

ity of management” lens and implementation of ISO 14000

may lead to use of “environmental quality” lens. ISO 14000

has the potential to lead to two kinds of cultural changes.

First, within the corporation, it has the potential to lead to

consideration of environmental issues throughout the com-

pany and its business decisions ranging from hiring of em-

ployees to marketing. Second, ISO 14000 has the potential

to become part of a global culture as the public comes to

view ISO 14000 certification as a benchmark connoting

good environmental stewardship by a company.

[Paulette L. Stenzel]

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Itai-itai disease

ESOURCES

OOKS

Tibor, T., and I. Feldman. ISO 14000: A Guide to the New Environmental

Management Standards. Irwin Publishing Company, 1996.

von Zharen, W. M. ISO 14000: Understanding the Environmental Standards.

Government Institutes, 1996.

ERIODICALS

Kass, S. L. “The Lawyer’s Role in Implementing ISO 14000.” Natural

Resources & Environment 3, no. 5 (Spring 1997).

Isotope

Different forms of atoms of the same element. Atoms consist

of a nucleus, containing positively-charged particles (pro-

tons) and neutral particles (neutrons), surrounded by nega-

tively-charged particles (electrons). Isotopes of an element

differ only in the number of neutrons in the nucleus and

hence in atomic weight. The nuclei of some isotopes are

unstable and undergo

radioactive decay

. An element can

have several stable and radioactive isotopes, but most ele-

ments have only two or three isotopes that are of any impor-

tance. Also, for most elements the radioactive isotopes are

only of concern in material exposed to certain types of radia-

tion sources.

Carbon

has three important isotopes with

atomic weights of 12, 13, and 14. C-12 is stable and repre-

sents 98.9% of natural carbon. C-13 is also stable and repre-

sents 1.1% of natural carbon. C-14 represents an insignifi-

cant fraction of naturally-occurring carbon, but it is

radioactive and important because its radioactive decay is

valuable in the dating of fossils and ancient artifacts. It is

also useful in tracing the reactions of carbon compounds in

research. See also Nuclear fission; Nuclear power; Radioactiv-

ity; Radiocarbon dating

Itai-itai disease

The symptoms of Itai-Itai disease were first observed in

1913 and characterized between 1947 and 1955; it was 1968,

however, before the Japanese Ministry of Health and Wel-

fare officially declared that the disease was caused by chronic

cadmium poisoning

in conjunction with other factors such

as the stresses of pregnancy and lactation, aging, and dietary

deficiencies of vitamin D and calcium. The name arose from

the cries of pain, “itai-itai” (ouch-ouch) by the most seriously

stricken victims, older Japanese farm women. Although men,

young women, and children were also exposed, 95% of the

victims were post-menopausal women over 50 years of age.

They usually had given birth to several children and had

lived more than 30 years within 2 mi (3 km) of the lower

stream of the Jinzu River near Toyama.

779

The disease started with symptoms similar to rheuma-

tism, neuralgia, or neuritis. Then came bone lesions, osteo-

malacia, and osteoporosis, along with renal disfunction and

proteinuria. As it escalated, pain in the pelvic region caused

the victims to walk with a duck-like gait. Next, they were

incapable of rising from their beds because even a slight

strain caused bone fractures. The suffering could last many

years before it finally ended with death. Overall, an estimated

199 victims have been identified, of which 162 had died by

December 1992.

The number of victims increased during and after

World War II as production expanded at the Kamioka Mine

owned by the Mitsui Mining and Smelting Company. As

3,000 tons of zinc-lead ore per day were mined and smelted,

cadmium was discharged in the

wastewater

. Downstream,

farmers withdrew the fine particles of

flotation tailings

the Jinzu River along with water for drinking and crop

irrigation

. As rice plants were damaged near the irrigation

inlets, farmers dug small

sedimentation

pools that were

ineffective against the nearly invisible poison.

Both the numbers of Itai-Itai disease patients and the

damage to the rice crops rapidly decreased after the mining

company built a large settling basin to purify the wastewater

in 1955. However, even after the

discharge

into the Jinzu

River was halted, the cadmium already in the rice paddy

soils was augmented by airborne exhausts. Mining operations

in several other Japanese prefectures also produced cad-

mium-contaminating rice, but afflicted individuals were not

certified as Itai-Itai patients. That designation was applied

only to those who lived in the Jinzu River area.

In 1972 the survivors and their families became the

first

pollution

victims in Japan to win a lawsuit against a

major company. They won because in 1939 Article 109 of

the Mining Act had imposed strict liability upon mining

facilities for damages caused by their activities. The plaintiffs

had only to prove that cadmium discharged from the mine

caused their disease, not that the company was negligent.

As epidemiological proof of causation sufficed as legal proof

in this case, it set a precedent for other pollution litigation

as well.

Despite legal success and compensation, the problem

of contaminated rice continues. In 1969 the government

initially set a maximum allowable standard of 0.4

parts

per million

(ppm) cadmium in unpolished rice. However,

because much of the contaminated farmland produced grain

in excess of that level, in 1970 under the Foodstuffs Hygiene

Law this was raised to 1 ppm cadmium for unpolished

rice and 0.9 ppm cadmium for polished rice. To restore

contaminated farmland, Japanese authorities instituted a

program in which, each year, the most highly contaminated

soils in a small area are exchanged for uncontaminated soils.

Less contaminated soils are rehabilitated through the addi-

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

IUCN—The World Conservation Union

tion of lime, phosphate, and a cadmium sequestering agent,

EDTA.

By 1990 about 10,720 acres (4,340 ha), or 66.7% of

the approximately 16,080 acres (6,510 ha) of the most highly

cadmium contaminated farmland had been restored. In the

remaining contaminated areas where farm families continue

to eat homegrown rice, the symptoms are alleviated by treat-

ment with massive doses of vitamins B1, B12, D, calcium,

and various hormones. New methods have also been devised

to cause the cadmium to be excreted more rapidly. In addi-

tion, the high costs of compensation and restoration are

leading to the conclusion that prevention is not only better

but cheaper. This is perhaps the most encouraging factor of

all. See also Bioaccumulation; Environmental law; Heavy

metals and heavy metal poisoning; Mine spoil waste;

Smelter; Water pollution

[Frank M. D’Itri]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Kobayashi, J. “Pollution by Cadmium and the Itai-Itai Disease in Japan.”

In Toxicity of Heavy Metals in the Environment, Part 1, edited by F. W.

Oehme. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1978.

Kogawa, K. “Itai-Itai Disease and Follow-Up Studies.” In Cadmium in the

Environment, Part II, edited by J. O. Nriagu. New York: Wiley, 1981.

Tsuchiya, K., ed. Cadmium Studies in Japan: A Review. Tokyo, Japan, and

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Kodansha and Elsevier/North-Holland Biomed-

ical Press, 1978.

IUCN—The World Conservation Union

Founded in 1948 as the International Union for the Conser-

vation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), IUCN

works with governments, conservation organizations, and

industry groups to conserve

wildlife

and approach the

world’s environmental problems using “sound scientific in-

sight and the best available information.” Its membership,

currently over 980, comes from 140 countries and includes

56 sovereign states, as well as government agencies and

nongovernmental organizations. IUCN exists to serve its

members, representing their views and providing them with

the support necessary to achieve their goals. Above all, IUCN

works with its members “to achieve development that is

sustainable and that provides a lasting improvement in the

quality of life for people all over the world.” IUCN’s three

basic conservation objectives are: (1) to secure the conserva-

tion of nature, and especially of biological diversity, as an

essential foundation for the future; (2) to ensure that where

the earth’s natural resources are used this is done in a wise,

equitable, and sustainable way; (3) to guide the development

of human communities toward ways of life that are both of

780

good quality and in enduring harmony with other compo-

nents of the

biosphere

IUCN is one of the few organizations to include both

governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

It is in a unique position to provide a neutral forum where

these organizations can meet, exchange ideas, and build

partnerships to carry out conservation projects. IUCN is also

unusual in that it both develops environmental policies and

then implements them through the projects it sponsors.

Because the IUCN works closely with, and its membership

includes, many government scientists and officials, the orga-

nization often takes a conservative, pro-management, as op-

posed to a “preservationist,” approach to wildlife issues. It

may encourage or endorse limited

hunting

and commercial

exploitation of wildlife if it believes this can be carried out

on a sustainable basis.

IUCN maintains a global network of over 5,000

scientists and wildlife professionals who are organized into

six standing commissions that deal with various aspects

of the union’s work. There are commissions on Ecology,

Education, Environmental Planning,

Environmental Law

National Parks and Protected Areas, and

Species

Survival.

These commissions create action plans, develop policies,

advise on projects and programs, and contribute to IUCN

publications, all on an unpaid, voluntary basis.

IUCN publishes an authoritative series of “Red Data

Books,” describing the status of rare and endangered wildlife.

Each volume provides information on the population, distri-

bution,

habitat

and ecology, threats, and protective mea-

sures in effect for listed species. The “Red Data Books”

concept was originated in the mid-1960s by the famous

British conservationist Sir Peter Scott, and the series now

includes a variety of publication on regions and species.

Other titles in the series of “Red Data Books” include Dol-

phins, Porpoises, and Whales of the World; Lemurs of Madagas-

car and the Comoros; Threatened Primates of Africa; Threatened

Swallowtail Butterflies of the World; Threatened Birds of the

Americas; and books on plants and other species of wildlife,

including a series of conservation action plans for threatened

species.

Other notable IUCN works include World Conserva-

tion Strategy: Living Resources Conservation for Sustainable

Development and its successor document Caring for the

Earth—A Strategy for Sustainable Living; and the United

Nations List of Parks and Protected Areas. IUCN also

publishes books and papers on regional conservation, habi-

tat preservation, environmental law and policy, ocean ecol-

ogy and management, and conservation and development

strategies.

[Lewis G. Regenstein]

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Ivory-billed woodpecker

ESOURCES

RGANIZATIONS

IUCN—The World Conservation Union Headquarters, Rue Mauverney

28, Gland, Switzerland CH-1196 ++41 (22) 999-0000, Fax: ++41 (22)

999-0002, Email: mail@hq.iucn.org, <http://www.iucn.org>

Ivory-billed woodpecker

The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is one

of the rarest birds in the world and is considered by most

authorities to be extinct in the United States. The last con-

firmed sighting of ivory-bills was in Cuba in 1987 or 1988.

Though never common, the ivory-billed woodpecker was

rarely seen in the United States after the first years of the

twentieth century. Some were seen in Louisiana in 1942,

and since then, occasional sightings have been unverified.

Interest in the bird rekindled in 1999, when a student at

Louisiana State University claimed to have seen a pair of

ivory-billed woodpeckers in a

wilderness

preserve. Teams

of scientists searched the area for two years. No ivory-billed

woodpecker was sighted, though some evidence made it

plausible the bird was in the vicinity. By mid-2002, the ivory-

billed woodpecker’s return from the brink of

extinction

remained a tantalizing possibility, but not an established fact.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was a huge bird, averag-

ing 19–20 in (48–50 cm) long, with a wingspan of over 30

in (76 cm). The ivory-colored bills of these birds were prized

as decorations by native Americans. The naturalist John

James Audubon found ivory-billed woodpecker in swampy

forest edges in Texas in the 1830s. But by the end of the

nineteenth century, the majority of the bird’s prime

habitat

had been destroyed by

logging

. Ivory-billed woodpeckers

required large tracts of land in the bottomland cypress, oak,

and black gum forests of the Southeast, where they fed off

insect larva in mature trees. This

species

was the largest

woodpecker in North America, and they preferred the largest

of these trees, the same ones targeted by timber companies

as the most profitable to harvest. The territory for breeding

pairs of ivory-billed woodpeckers consists of about three

square miles of undisturbed, swampy forest, and there was

little prime habitat left for them after 1900, for most of

these areas had been heavily logged. By the 1930s, one of

the only virgin cypress swamps left was the Singer Tract in

Louisiana, an 80,000-acre (32,375-ha) swathe of land owned

by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. In 1935 a team

of ornithologists descended on it to locate, study, and record

some of the last ivory-billed woodpeckers in existence. They

found the birds and were able to film and photograph them,

as well as make the only sound recordings of them in exis-

tence. The Audubon Society, the state of Louisiana, and

the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service

tried to buy the land

from Singer to make it a refuge for the rare birds. But Singer

781

had already sold timber rights to the land. During World

War II, when demand for lumber was particularly high, the

Singer Tract was leveled. One of the giant cypress trees that

was felled contained the nest and eggs of an ivory-billed

woodpecker. Land that had been virgin forest then became

soybean fields.

Few sightings of these woodpeckers were made in the

1940s, and none exist for the 1950s. But in the early 1960s

ivory-billed woodpeckers were reported seen in South Caro-

lina, Texas, and Louisiana. Intense searches, however, left

scientists with little hope by the end of that decade, as only

six birds were reported to exist. Subsequent decades yielded

a few individual sightings in the United States, but none

were confirmed.

In 1985 and 1986, there was a search for the Cuban

subspecies of the ivory-billed woodpecker. The first expedi-

tion yielded no birds, but trees were found that had appar-

ently been worked by the birds. The second expedition found

at least one pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers. Most of the

land formerly occupied by the Cuban subspecies was cut

over for sugar cane plantations by the 1920s, and surveys in

1956 indicated that this population had declined to about

a dozen birds. The last reported sightings of the species

occurred in the Sierra de Moa area of Cuba. They are still

considered to exist there, but the health of any remaining

individuals must be in question, given the

inbreeding

that

must occur with such a low population level and the fact

that so little suitable habitat remains.

In 1999, a student at Louisiana State University (LSU)

claimed to have seen a pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers

while he was

hunting

for turkey in the Pearl River

Wildlife

Management

Area near the Louisiana-Mississippi border.

The student, David Kulivan, was a credible witness, and he

soon convinced ornithologists at LSU to search for the birds.

News of the sighting attracted thousands of amateur and

professional birders over the next two years. Scientists from

LSU, Cornell University, and the Louisiana Department of

Wildlife

and Fisheries organized an expedition that included

posting of high-tech listening devices. Over more than two

years, no one else saw the birds, though scientists found

trunks stripped of bark, characteristic of the way the ivory-

billed woodpecker feeds, and two groups heard the distinct

double rapping sound the ivory-billed woodpecker makes

when it knocks a trunk. No one heard the call of the ivory-

billed woodpecker, though this sound would have been con-

sidered definitive evidence of the ivory-billed woodpecker’s

existence. Hope for confirmation of Kulivan’s sighting rested

on deciphering the tapes made by a dozen recording devices.

This was being done at Cornell University, and was expected

to take years.

By mid-2002, the search for the ivory-billed wood-

pecker in Louisiana had wound down, disappointingly in-

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Izaak Walton League

Ivory-billed woodpecker (

Campephilus

). (Photograph by James Tanner. Photo Researchers Inc. Reproduced by permission.)

conclusive. While some scientists remained skeptical about

the sighting, others believed that the forest in the area may

have regrown enough to support an ivory-billed woodpecker

population. See also Deforestation; Endangered species; Ex-

tinction; International Council for Bird Preservation; Wild-

life management

[Eugene C Beckham]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Collar, N. J., et al. Threatened Birds of the Americas: The ICBP/IUCN Red

Data Book. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. The Birder’s Handbook. New

York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. Birds in Jeopardy: The Imperiled

and Extinct Birds of the United States and Canada, Including Hawaii and

Puerto Rico. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992.

ERIODICALS

Gorman, James. “Listening for the Call of a Vanished Bird” New York

Times, March 5, 2002, F1.

Graham, Frank Jr. “Is the Ivorybill Back?” Audubon (May/June 2000): 14.

782

Pianin, Eric. “Scientists Give Up Search for Woodpecker; Some Signs

Noted of Ivory-Billed Bird Not Seen Since ’40s” Washington Post, February

21, 2002, A2.

Tomkins, Shannon. “Dead or Alive?” Houston Chronicle, April 14, 2002, 8.

Izaak Walton League

In 1922, 54 sportsmen and sportswomen—all concerned

with the apparent destruction of American fishing water-

ways—established the Izaak Walton League of America

(IWLA). They looked upon Izaak Walton, a seventeenth-

century English fisherman and author of The Compleat An-

gler, as inspiration in protecting the waters of America. The

Izaak Walton League has since widened its focus: as a major

force in the American

conservation

movement, IWLA now

pledges in its slogan “to defend the nation’s

soil

, air, woods,

water, and wildlife.”

When sportsmen and sportswomen formed IWLA

approximately 70 years ago, they worried that American

industry would ruin fishing streams. Raw sewage, soil

ero-

sion

, and rampant

pollution

threatened water and

wildlife

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Izaak Walton League

Initially the League concentrated on preserving lakes,

streams, and rivers. In 1927, at the request of President

Calvin Coolidge, IWLA organized the first national

water

pollution

inventory. Izaak Walton League members (called

“Ikes") subsequently helped pass the first national water

pollution control

act in the 1940s. In 1969 IWLA instituted

the Save Our Streams program, and this group mobilized

forces to pass the groundbreaking

Clean Water Act

of 1972.

The League did not only concentrate on the preservation

of American waters, however. From its 1926 campaign to

protect the black bass, to the purchase of a helicopter in 1987

to help game law officers protect waterfowl from poachers in

the Gulf of Mexico, IWLA has also been instrumental in

the preservation of wildlife. In addition, the League has

fought to protect public lands such as the National Elk

Refuge in Wyoming, the

Everglades National Park

, and

the Isle Royale National Park.

IWLA currently sponsors several environmental pro-

grams designed to conserve

natural resources

and educate

the public. The aforementioned Save Our Streams (SOS)

program is a grassroots organization designed to monitor

water quality

in streams and rivers. Through 200 chapters

nationwide, SOS promotes “stream rehabilitation” through

stream adoption kits and water pollution law training. An-

other program,

Wetlands

Watch, allows local groups to

purchase, adopt, and protect nearby wetlands. Similarly, the

Izaak Walton League Endowment buys land to save it from

unwanted development. IWLA’s Uncle Ike Youth Educa-

tion program aims to educate children and convince them

of the necessity of preserving the

environment

. A last major

program from the League is its internationally acclaimed

Outdoor Ethics program. Outdoor Ethics works to stop

poaching

and other illegal and unsportsmanlike outdoor

activities by educating hunters, anglers, and others.

The League also sponsors and operates regional con-

servation efforts. Its Midwest Office, based in Minnesota,

783

concentrates on preservation of the Upper Mississippi River

region. The

Chesapeake Bay

Program is a major regional

focus. Almost 25% of the “Ikes” live in the region of this

estuary

, and public education, awards, and local conserva-

tion projects help protect Chesapeake Bay. In addition the

Soil Conservation

Program focuses on combating soil ero-

sion and

groundwater pollution

, and the Public Lands

Restoration Task Force works out of its headquarters in

Portland, Oregon, to strike a balance between forests and

the desire for their natural resources in the West.

IWLA makes its causes known through a variety of

publications. Splash, a product of SOS, enlightens the public

as to how to protect streams in America. Outdoor Ethics,a

newsletter from the program of the same name, educates

recreationists to responsible practices of

hunting

, boating,

and other outdoor activities. The League also publishes a

membership magazine, Outdoor America, and the League

Leader, a vehicle of information for IWLA’s 2,000 chapter

and division officers. IWLA has also produced the longest-

running weekly environmental program on television. Enti-

tled Make Peace with Nature, the program has aired on PBS

for almost 20 years and presents stories of environmental

interest.

Having expanded its scope from water to the general

environment, IWLA has become a vital force in the national

conservation movement. Through its many and varied pro-

grams, the League continues to promote constructive and

active involvement in environmental problems.

[Andrea Gacki]

ESOURCES

RGANIZATIONS

Izaak Walton League of America, 707 Conservation Lane, Gaithersburg,

MD USA 20878 (301) 548-0150, Fax: (301) 548-0146, Toll Free: (800)

IKE-LINE, Email: general@iwla.org, <http://www.iwla.org>

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Wes Jackson (1936 – )

American environmentalist and writer

Wes Jackson is a plant geneticist, writer, and co-founder,

with his wife Dana Jackson, of the

Land Institute

in Salina,

Kansas. He is one of the leading critics of conventional

agricultural practices, which in his view are depleting

topsoil

reducing genetic diversity, and destroying small family farms

and rural communities. Jackson is also critical of the culture

that provides the pretext and the context within which this

destruction occurs and is justified as “necessary,” “efficient,”

and “economical.” He contrasts a culture or mind-set that

emphasizes humanity’s mastery or dominion over

nature

with an alternative vision that takes “nature as the measure”

of human activity. The former viewpoint can produce tempo-

rary triumphs but not long-lasting or sustainable livelihood;

only the latter holds out the hope that humans can live with

nature, on nature’s terms.

Jackson was born in 1936 in Topeka, Kansas, the son

of a farmer. Young and restless, Jackson held various jobs—

welder, farm hand, ranch hand, teacher—before devoting

his time to the study of agricultural practices in the United

States and abroad. He attended Kansas Wesleyan University,

the University of Kansas, and North Carolina State Univer-

sity, where he earned his doctorate in plant genetics in 1967.

According to Jackson, agriculture as we know it is

unnatural, artificial, and, by geological time-scales, of rela-

tively recent origin. It requires plowing, which leads to loss

of topsoil, which in turn reduces and finally destroys fertility.

Large-scale “industrial” agriculture also requires large invest-

ments, complex and expensive machinery, fertilizers, pesti-

cides, and herbicides, and leads to a loss of genetic diversity,

soil erosion

and

compaction

, and other negative conse-

quences. It is also predicated on the planting and harvesting

of annual crops—corn, wheat, soybeans—that leaves fields

uncovered for long periods and thus leaves precious topsoil

unprotected and vulnerable to erosion by wind and water.

For every bushel of corn harvested, a bushel of topsoil is

lost. Jackson estimates that America has lost between one-

785

third and one-half of its topsoil since the arrival of the first

European settlers.

At the Land Institute, Jackson and his associates are

attempting to re-think and revise agricultural practices so as

to “make nature the measure” and enable farmers to “meet

the expectations of the land,” rather than the other way

around. In particular, they are returning to, and attempting

to learn from, the native

prairie

plants and the ecosystems

that sustain them. They are also exploring the feasibility of

alternative farming methods that might minimize or even

eliminate entirely the planting and harvesting of annual

crops, favoring instead the use of perennials that protect and

bind topsoil.

Jackson’s emphasis is not exclusively scientific or tech-

nical. Like his long-time friend Wendell Berry, Jackson

emphasizes the culture in agriculture. Why humans grow

food is not at all mysterious or problematic: we must eat in

order to live. But how we choose to plant, grow, harvest,

distribute, and consume food is clearly a cultural and moral

matter having to do with our attitudes and beliefs. Our

contemporary consumer culture is out of kilter, Jackson con-

tends, in various ways. For one, the economic emphasis on

minimizing costs and maximizing yields ignores longer-term

environmental costs that come with the depletion of topsoil,

the diminution of genetic diversity, and the depopulation of

rural communities. For another, most Americans have lost

(and many have never had) a sense of connectedness with

the land and the natural

environment

; Jackson contends

that they are unaware of the mysteries and wonder of birth,

death and rebirth, and of cycles and seasons, that are main-

stays of a meaningful human life. To restore this sense of

mystery and meaning requires what Jackson calls homecoming

and “the resettlement of America,” and “becoming native to

this place.” More Americans need to return to the land, to

repopulate rural communities, and to re-learn the wealth of

skills that we have lost or forgotten or never acquired. Such

skills are more than matters of method or technique, they

also have to do with ways of relating to nature and to each

other. Jackson has received several awards, such as the Pew

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

James Bay hydropower project

Conservation Scholars award (1990) and a MacArthur Fel-

lowship (1992).

Wes Jackson has been called, by critics and admirers

alike, a radical and a visionary. Both labels appear to apply.

For Jackson’s vision is indeed radical, in the original sense

of the term (from the Latin radix, or root). It is a vision

not only of “new roots for agriculture” but of new and deeper

roots for human relationships and communities that, like

protected prairie topsoil, will not easily erode.

[Terence Ball]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Berry, W. “New Roots for Agricultural Research.” In The Gift of Good

Land. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1981.

Eisenberg, E. New Roots for Agriculture. San Francisco: Friends of the

Earth, 1980.

Jackson, Wes. Altars of Unhewn Stone. San Francisco: North Point

Press, 1987.

———. Becoming Native to this Place. Lexington, KY: University Press of

Kentucky, 1994.

———, W. Berry, and B. Coleman, eds. Meeting the Expectations of the

Land. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984.

ERIODICALS

Eisenberg, E. “Back to Eden.” The Atlantic (October 1989): 57–89.

James Bay hydropower project

James Bay forms the southern tip of the much larger

Hudson Bay in Quebec, Canada. To the east lies the

Quebec-Labrador peninsula, an undeveloped area with vast

expanses of pristine

wilderness

. The region is similar to

Siberia, covered in

tundra

and sparse forests of black

spruce and other evergreens. It is home to roughly 100

species

of birds, twenty species of fish and dozens of

mammals, including muskrat, lynx, black bear, red fox,

and the world’s largest herd of caribou. The area has also

been home to the Cree and other Native Indian tribes

for centuries. Seven rivers drain the wet, rocky region,

the largest being the La Grande.

In the 1970s, the government-owned Hydro-Quebec

electric utility began to divert these rivers,

flooding

3,861

square miles (10,000 km

) of land. They built a series of

reservoirs,

dams

and dikes on La Grande that generated

10,300 megawatts of power for homes and businesses in

Quebec, New York, and New England. With its $16 billion

price tag, the project is one of the world’s largest energy

projects. The complex generates a total of 15,000 megawatts.

A second phase of the project added two more hydroelectric

complexes, supplying another 12,000 megawatts of power--

786

the equivalent of more than thirty-five nuclear

power

plants

But the project has had many opponents. The Cree

and other Inuit tribes joined forces with American environ-

mentalists to protest the project. Its environmental impact

has had scant analysis; in fact, damage has been severe. Ten

thousand caribou drowned in 1984, while crossing one of

the newly-dammed rivers on their

migration

route. When

the utility flooded land, it destroyed

habitat

for countless

plants and animals. The graves of Cree Indians, who for

millennia, had hunted, traveled, and lived along the rivers,

were inundated. The project also altered the

ecology

the James and Hudson bays, disrupting spawning cycles,

nutrient

systems, and other important maritime resources.

Naturally-occurring

mercury

in rocks and

soil

is released

as the land is flooded and accumulates as it passes through

the food chain from microscopic organisms, to fish, to hu-

mans. A majority of the native people in villages where fish

are a main part of the diet show symptoms of mercury

poisoning

Despite these problems, Hydro-Quebec pursued the

project, partly because of Quebec’s long-standing struggle for

independence from Canada. The power is sold to corporate

customers, providing income for the province and attracting

industry to Quebec.

The Cree and environmentalists, joined by New York

congressmen, took their fight to court. On

Earth Day

1993,

they filed suit against New York Power Authority in United

States District Court in New York, challenging the legality

of the agreement, which was to go into effect in 1999. Their

claim was based on the United States Constitution and the

1916 Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada.

In February 2002, nearly 70 percent of Quebec’s James

Bay Cree Indians endorsed a 2.25 billion dollar deal with

the Quebec government for hydropower development on

their land. Approval for the deal ranged from a low of 50

percent, to a high of 83 percent, among the nine communi-

ties involved. Some Cree spokespersons considered the

agreement a vindication of the long campaign, waged since

1975, to have Cree rights respected.

Under the deal, the James Bay Cree would receive $16

million in 2002, $30.7 million in 2003, then $46.5 million

a year for 48 years. In return, the Cree would drop environ-

mental lawsuits totaling $2.4 billion. The Cree also agreed

to hydroelectric plants along the Eastman River and Rupert

River, subject to environmental approval. The deal guaran-

tees the Cree jobs with the hydroelectric authority and gives

them more control over

logging

and other areas of their

economy. See also Environmental law; Hetch Hetchy Reser-

voir; Nuclear energy

[Bill Asenjo Ph.D.]