This map of southwestern Pennsylvania’s coal fields gives a sense for the scale of mining activity in the region, and why the runoff of mining waste was such a big problem in local watersheds.
The Youghiogheny River, which runs through Connellsville, was among the many bodies of water that Kenneth Reid devoted his life to protecting.
Photo by: Jon Dawson/Flickr | CC BY-ND 2.0
On March 12, 1931, a front-page headline in The Daily Courier of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, announced “Walton League Charter Closed With 61 Members: Application Is Made to National Headquarters by Kenneth A. Reid.” [1] Kenneth Reid (1895–1956) lived in Connellsville; he had recently moved back to his hometown after a decade of living in Texas, where he first joined the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA). [2] One of the first national conservation organizations in the United States, it was founded in 1922 by a group of Chicago sportsmen who named their fledgling association after 17th-century writer and avid fisherman Izaak Walton. Walton’s book “The Compleat Angler” encouraged readers to take care of the environment so that outdoor recreation could be enjoyed by all for generations to come. The founders shared Walton’s goal; they wanted to conserve the environments in which they fished and hunted, and the IWLA was a way for them to organize together to campaign for governmental protections of forests and streams. [3] They called themselves the “Defenders of Woods, Waters, and Wild Life,” which proved to be a popular rallying cry as 100,000 joined the association in the first three years; by their fifth year, membership was at 300,000. [4]
Reid organized the new Connellsville chapter after resettling in Western Pennsylvania in 1927. The Daily Courier wrote in their coverage, “The rapid growth of the unit is taken as indication of the great interest of sportsmen here in preserving wild life of the State and Nation.” [5] It makes sense that Pennsylvania sportsmen were concerned with conservation: industrialization had wreaked havoc on the state’s environment. Coal mining, in particular, had introduced acidic runoff into watersheds, polluting streams and rivers and killing off plant and animal life in these riparian ecosystems. According to historian Nicholas Casner, “Local mining communities and neighboring cities received the brunt of the water problems associated with coal production.” By the early 20th century, it was almost impossible to catch salmon or bass in the Monongahela River—where they had once been plentiful—because of acid mine drainage into its tributaries. [6] In Connellsville, itself a major coal town, Reid and his fellow local IWLA members observed firsthand that water pollution was clearly a problem. As Reid declared in a 1931 radio address, “Uncontrolled economic forces and industrial activities are constantly either seriously impairing or completely eliminating many miles of water.” [7]
This map of southwestern Pennsylvania’s coal fields gives a sense for the scale of mining activity in the region, and why the runoff of mining waste was such a big problem in local watersheds.
However, solving the problem of acid mine drainage and the pollution of local watersheds pitted economic progress against the welfare of humans and the environment. As Reid observed while serving on the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, the state had prospered as a result of its coal industry. State leaders hesitated to pass laws forcing companies to (expensively) clean up their acts, fearing companies would just move to a state without environmental regulations. In addition, many members of IWLA chapters across the United States worked for industrial corporations; it was these middle-class and professional jobs that provided them with the leisure time and money to take fishing and hunting trips. (Casner found that the number of sportsmen applying for hunting and fishing licenses doubled in the 1910s, from 6 million to 12 million.) [8]
As a result, the IWLA took a “multi-use” conservation approach at both the local and national levels, recognizing that sportsmen, industry and government had to find a way to share resources for the benefit of all users. That didn’t mean they withheld criticism of industry, though. Their magazine, Outdoor America, often pointed out ways in which corporations acted selfishly or governments failed to protect the people they represented. National IWLA leadership realized that state-level environmental regulations would always put the economy first, and so they began to push for national legislation to protect streams and rivers. [9]
Reid and several other IWLA leaders from Pennsylvania began lobbying federal leaders, winning a meeting in 1934 with Connecticut Senator Augustine Lonergan. Lonergan became a champion of the cause, and he introduced the first national water pollution bill in 1936. Unfortunately, it floundered for many years, and when it finally passed in 1948 as the Water Pollution Control Act, it did not include many of the policies that the ILWA initially proposed. [10]
Another program that Reid and other prominent IWLA leaders lobbied for—the Federal Mine Sealing Program of the Civil Works Administration—was more successful. As early as 1933, the Connellsville newspaper reported that "Mr. Reid has been making [efforts] for some time to bring about the sealing of closed mines ... thus greatly reducing the flow of acid water into the stream.” [11] This was in the midst of the Great Depression, and the U.S. government was looking for ways to put Americans back to work. As a result of Reid’s efforts, funding in the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935 allocated money for public works projects, and members of the Works Progress Administration’s Civilian Conservation Corps in states including Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia set to work sealing up old mines so that acidic discharge could no longer leak out into nearby watersheds. This eventually proved to not work very well, and acid mine drainage continued. However, the program showed the IWLA that their lobbying efforts could work and that the national government could (and should) do more to tackle water pollution and other environmental problems. [12]
In 1938, Reid became the executive director of the IWLA, and he remained in that role until 1949. He solidified the national organization’s finances and strengthened its relationships with other environmental groups. Reid also led IWLA campaigns to pass the 1946 Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act and the aforementioned Water Pollution Control Act of 1948.
So why does the IWLA have less name recognition today than the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation or National Audubon Society—despite the group’s historic achievements? According to historian Michael C. Robinson, after Reid’s retirement, the IWLA’s “official outlook became less combative, more accommodating and more prone to accepting the recreational as well as fish and wildlife benefits of federal water projects.” While the memberships of the Sierra Club, Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation doubled or more than doubled during the 1960s environmental movement— they fought for broader environmental protections than those sought by fishermen and hunters—the IWLA added only 1,000 new members. [13]
Despite being overshadowed by its peer organizations, the IWLA continued its mission to bring together local sportsmen for recreation, education and advocacy. Today there are chapters all across the country, many of which can be found along the route of the Great American Rail Trail. [14]
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