Outdoor News Daily

By Justin McDaniel, Assistant Editor, http://www.NRAhuntersrights.org

California’s ban on lead ammunition for big-game hunting in the state’s condor range could be expanding under proposals being considered by the California Fish and Game Commission, and that could mean more bad news for the future of hunting in the state.

The commission voted May 13 to publish a notice of intent to expand its ban on lead ammunition in the condor range to include small game and upland/migratory bird hunting. There are actually two options under consideration—one that would extend the ban to small game mammals, such as hares, rabbits and tree squirrels, and another that would include small game mammals plus all upland game and upland/migratory birds.

It should be noted that the California Department of Fish and Game does not recommend adopting either of the two options under consideration by the commission.

“Our rationale for ‘not recommended’ is based strictly on a biological assessment of facts, and we have no facts to support any poisoning going on as a result of those activities (from lead ammunition used for small game and upland birds) in condor,” said Sonke Mastrup, deputy director of the California Department of Fish and Game. “That isn’t to say we’re arguing that pathway isn’t completely unreasonable, but we just do not have any evidence.”

The Department of Fish and Game noted that almost all small game taken by hunters is recovered in the field, and it is unlikely a condor would find and feed on a small-game animal or bird that was not recovered by a hunter, as these are not the condor’s traditional food sources.

The commission is considering an expansion of the lead ban as the result of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council against the state of California. The Center for Biological Diversity in particular supported the original lead ban in condor country.

“Bottom line is that there is no more scientific support for extending this ban than there was for the initial ban,” said Susan Recce, NRA-ILA’s director of Conservation, Wildlife and Natural Resources. “This proposal has nothing to do with saving the condor. It is all about special interests who will seize any opportunity to make it more difficult for hunters to go afield.”

Currently, hunters are prohibited from using ammunition containing lead for hunting deer, bear, wild pig, elk, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, ground squirrels, and other non-game wildlife in areas designated as California condor range, which extends roughly from San Jose south to Los Angeles. This prohibition went into effect July 1, 2008 amid unproven speculation that condors were dying from lead scavenged from the entrails of hunter-harvested game. This ban has had an immediate impact on hunters.

Last fall, in the first hunting season after California imposed a ban on lead ammunition in the state’s condor range, hunting license sales fell considerably after three years of steady gains. In the affected regions, the number of deer hunters dropped nearly 5 percent and hog hunters dropped 15 percent—costing the California Department of Fish and Game more than $200,000 in lost tag fees alone, according to a March 13 story in the San Bernadino Sun.

It is not surprising that hunting has fallen off in areas where traditional ammunition is banned, as a pre-ban survey of hunters by Responsive Management, a survey research firm, indicated that 25 percent of California hunters would either quit big game hunting or hunt less if a ban was adopted, with 15 percent indicating they would hunt in another state, 8 percent indicating they would hunt less frequently, and 2 percent saying they would quit hunting altogether.

That same study found that a majority (68 percent) of California hunters oppose a mandatory ban on the use of lead ammunition.

More than 295,000 hunters purchased hunting licenses in California in 2008, and an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 hunters were affected by the ban on lead ammunition for big game hunting, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

For a state that has seen hunting license sales decline from 690,000 in 1970 to less than 300,000 today, further lead bans in condor country could drive license sales even lower. The lead ban is widely unpopular with hunters because the state lacks sound scientific evidence showing that the ban is necessary in the first place. Combine with that the fact that non-lead ammunition is more expensive—sometimes twice as much as its lead counterparts, it cannot be found in all hunting calibers, and its performance on game differs from that of traditional lead ammunition, and it’s easy to see why the lead ban is contributing to hunters being driven from the field.

At the Fish and Game Commission’s May 13 meeting, Tom Pederson, representing the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said, “There is obviously a need for long-term monitoring of lead levels in condor populations and an exploration of other sources of lead ingestion by condors before any decision can be made about the effects of lead projectiles used in legitimate sport hunting. At this time there is no sound science to support a connection between lead projectiles used in sport hunting and elevated lead levels in the condor population. We believe voluntary compliance is the best way to resolve the issue.”

A public comment period on the Fish and Game Commission’s proposal to extend the lead ban in the condor’s range is scheduled to run until the commission’s June 25 meeting in Woodland, Calif. Recce will be submitting comments for NRA in opposition to the commission’s proposal.

Interested parties may present oral and/or written comments on the expanded lead ban in person at the June 25 meeting, or they may submit written comments via e-mail to fgc@fgc.ca.gov, via fax to (916) 653-5040, or via mail to the California Fish and Game Commission, 1416 Ninth Street, Room 1320, Sacramento, CA 95814. Click here for more details.

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