Number: 1975-01
From knowledge as an association of independent state organizations and their affiliated local groups, the National Wildlife Federation is of the firm conviction that an alert and fully-informed public will demand sound management of natural resources. Public education is the solid foundation upon which conservation practices must be based.
Overall, the National Wildlife Federation continues in its belief that contamination of the environment by water and air pollutants, by toxic chemicals, by solid wastes, and by noise, along with unwise practices relating to the extraction of minerals, and the harvesting of timber, grazing of livestock, the loss of natural areas, and the protection of endangered wildlife, constitute the major natural resource problems of the age. Currently, these are complicated by energy shortages and economic difficulties.
It is in light of this background that the National Wildlife Federation invites the attention of all Americans to what it considers the major conservation issues of the year, 1975:
Energy: The National Wildlife Federation believes that the Federal Government, working in concert with state and local governments, educational institutions, and private organizations, must develop a comprehensive and coordinated national energy policy. Such a policy should identify short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals, aiming towards a goal of reducing the nation’s energy growth rate to the lowest practicable level, perhaps two percent (2%) annually, meeting energy requirements with means which are the most efficient and economical and least harmful to the natural environment. This organization continues to be of the firm conviction that energy conservation must be an essential element in a national energy policy, with high priority being given to research and development on clean and safe sources of power independent of other countries while conserving valuable fossil fuels for other beneficial purposes.
Environment Protection and Economics: The National Wildlife Federation calls upon policy-makers to recognize the widespread benefits from investments in environmental protection in terms of improved public health and reduced damages to agricultural crops, wildlife habitat, sport and commercial fisheries and both private and public property. These benefits clearly outweigh minor influences which expenditures for pollution control have had or will have on either inflation or an economic recession.
Funding: High priority must be devoted toward funding for a massive energy research and development effort, on emphasizing the promising potentials in newer technologies in sources such as solar (including winds, tides, and ocean temperature differentials), geothermal, and fusion, and in improved conservation efforts. This organization also supports significantly greater financing for programs associated with pollution abatement and conservation of natural resources, especially those for the acquisition of critical wildlife habitat and/or park and wilderness areas which otherwise might be lost, and for an effective forest incentives program.
Land Use: This organization reiterates its conviction that sound land use planning on national, regional, state, and local levels is essential to a future which must identify and protect from competitive uses those areas which are critical to agricultural production, as wildlife habitat, and for public recreational purposes while recognizing needs for facilities for industry, business, housing, and transportation. The principles of sound land use planning and management must be applicable especially to properties owned and managed by agencies of government. Because of the great dependence of Federal and state agencies upon it for the financing of public recreational programs, it is particularly important that the Land and Water Conservation Fund be increased. In addition, the federal accelerated waterfowl wetlands acquisition program must be further extended and expanded.
Fish and Wildlife: As the demand for energy and land increases, posing an ever-greater threat to wildlife habitat, it is imperative that conservationists work together to conserve, maintain, and improve wildlife habitat–the critical factor in achieving optimum numbers of wildlife. The National Wildlife Federation supports a balanced wildlife management program which gives consideration to all species and recognizes the aesthetic and ecological values of wildlife as well as its value as a resource to consumptive users. Our wildlife resource belongs to all Americans, hunters and nonhunters, and we deplore any controversy between them that will impede the effort to improve and protect wildlife habitat. We recognize the rights of non-consumptive users just as we recognize hunting–properly regulated and based upon scientific principles–as a legitimate technique of wildlife management and as a form of recreation. We favor strict enforcement of hunting laws and insist that those laws be based upon the principles of sound, scientific wildlife management, completely protecting those species in short supply but allowing the regulated taking of those appropriate species which are abundant. We view as particularly urgent the need to preserve wetland and estuarine areas, and recommend that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and appropriate state wildlife agencies be given a stronger voice in decisions relating to federal water developments.
International Affairs: The National Wildlife Federation urges that the United States Government take an active and positive role in encouraging other nations to include proper considerations for the environment in all of their developmental activities, recognizing global concerns about the lack of application of scientific wildlife management, water pollution, contamination of the air, and over-harvesting of marine mammals and fishery resources. This organization appreciates the complexities of problems associated with food shortages, human settlements, desertification, weather modification, water desalination, and energy conservation, and recommends that the United Nations Environment Programme lay heavy stress upon the benefits to be gained through voluntary efforts toward stabilizing human populations. The National Wildlife Federation continues to have a particular concern over the welfare of international resources such as migratory waterfowl, whales, polar bears, porpoises, and bluefin tuna, and reiterates its belief that the fisheries jurisdiction of the United States should be extended to a 200-mile zone contiguous with our coasts.