swampmule
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The federal Environmental Protection Agency has received a petition to ban lead in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle, and Oregon wildlife officials are watching with some concern.
Also worried are people in the shooting sports.
“This is a serious issue for anyone who likes to target practice, shoot for fun or enjoy hunting, and will be a huge impact on shooting ranges across the nation,” said Mike McCarter, range master of the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club, which maintains a range at Saddle Butte east of Shedd.
“We are energizing our membership to send letters to the EPA in opposition of this petition,” McCarter said in an e-mail.
A coalition of conservation and other groups filed the petition with the EPA in Washington last Tuesday in order, they said, to stop lead from poisoning birds that may ingest the metal in the wild. They say thousands of tons of lead are left in the environment each year from spent bullets and fishing gear such as sinkers, and they say studies have shown harmful efefcts in eagles and other wildlife.
The EPA has 90 days from Tuesday to decide whether to ban the manufacture, processing and distribution in commerce of lead shot, bullets and fishing sinkers.
Opponents say substitute material would raise the price of hunting and fishing equipment, leading to fewer people hunting and fishing and cutting into the money available for wildlife management.
At CNS Firearms in Albany, co-owner Kevin Manske cites one example: A box of 50 rounds of one kind of .223 caliber lead-free ammo retails for $30, compared to about $20 for the same number of the regular kind.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has been monitoring the issue of lead ammunition for some time, said Roger Fuhrman, administrator of ODFW's information and education division.
ODFW gets about one-third of its $262 million two-year budget from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and another third in federal funds from an excise tax on firearms, ammunition and fishing gear.
Fuhrman couldn't say whether Oregon wildlife had been harmed by ingesting lead from fishing sinkers or bullet fragments left behind in, for instance, the guts of game animals dressed in the field.
Much of the concern over lead ammo, he said, arose in California and Arizona, where giant condors, already nearly extinct, were in danger from feeding on dead game animals containing traces of lead bullets.
California banned the use of lead ammunition for hunting game and other animals, such as coyotes and ground squirrels, in the condor's range in 2008.
Oregon wildlife officials would prefer that any decisions about lead be made in collaboration with Western wildlife agencies and all other groups affected, according to Fuhrman.
“Somebody needs to take into account the interests of hunters and anglers,” he said.
The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies has just adopted a resolution calling for more work on the lead issue.
“Any proposed transition to non-lead ammunition or fishing tackle is likely to be difficult, costly and confusing for hunters, anglers, retailers and manufacturers,” the association said.
The groups that petitioned the EPA for the lead ban are the American Bird Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Project Gutpile, a hunters' group that provides educational resources for lead-free hunters and anglers.
“As a hunter in California, compliance with the recent state nonlead ammunition regulation has been simple,” Anthony Prieto, a hunter and co-founder of Project Gutpile, said in a statement. “I still get to hunt, there is no toxic impact on wildlife or my health, and copper bullets shoot better.”
But the National Shooting Sports Foundation disagrees.
The association — which represents the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry — announced its opposition to the petition as soon as it was filed.
It said the petition was wrong in claiming that the use of traditional ammunition by hunters is inconsistent with the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976.
“There is simply no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations that would require restricting or banning the use of traditional ammunition beyond current limitations, such as the scientifically based restriction on waterfowl hunting,” association President Steve Sanetti said in a statement.
The association press statement cited recent statistics from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service showing that from 1981 to 2006, the number of breeding pairs of bald eagles in the United States increased 724 percent. And much like the bald eagle, it added, raptor populations throughout the United States are soaring, hardly a sign they were being harmed by ingesting lead from spent bullets.
Lead shot for use in hunting waterfowl has been banned since 1991.
The Center for Biological Diversity said the petitioners “support exceptions to allow continued use of lead pistol ammunition for home defense and non-hunting activities,” and it added the petition would not affect law enforcement or the military.
Also worried are people in the shooting sports.
“This is a serious issue for anyone who likes to target practice, shoot for fun or enjoy hunting, and will be a huge impact on shooting ranges across the nation,” said Mike McCarter, range master of the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club, which maintains a range at Saddle Butte east of Shedd.
“We are energizing our membership to send letters to the EPA in opposition of this petition,” McCarter said in an e-mail.
A coalition of conservation and other groups filed the petition with the EPA in Washington last Tuesday in order, they said, to stop lead from poisoning birds that may ingest the metal in the wild. They say thousands of tons of lead are left in the environment each year from spent bullets and fishing gear such as sinkers, and they say studies have shown harmful efefcts in eagles and other wildlife.
The EPA has 90 days from Tuesday to decide whether to ban the manufacture, processing and distribution in commerce of lead shot, bullets and fishing sinkers.
Opponents say substitute material would raise the price of hunting and fishing equipment, leading to fewer people hunting and fishing and cutting into the money available for wildlife management.
At CNS Firearms in Albany, co-owner Kevin Manske cites one example: A box of 50 rounds of one kind of .223 caliber lead-free ammo retails for $30, compared to about $20 for the same number of the regular kind.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has been monitoring the issue of lead ammunition for some time, said Roger Fuhrman, administrator of ODFW's information and education division.
ODFW gets about one-third of its $262 million two-year budget from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and another third in federal funds from an excise tax on firearms, ammunition and fishing gear.
Fuhrman couldn't say whether Oregon wildlife had been harmed by ingesting lead from fishing sinkers or bullet fragments left behind in, for instance, the guts of game animals dressed in the field.
Much of the concern over lead ammo, he said, arose in California and Arizona, where giant condors, already nearly extinct, were in danger from feeding on dead game animals containing traces of lead bullets.
California banned the use of lead ammunition for hunting game and other animals, such as coyotes and ground squirrels, in the condor's range in 2008.
Oregon wildlife officials would prefer that any decisions about lead be made in collaboration with Western wildlife agencies and all other groups affected, according to Fuhrman.
“Somebody needs to take into account the interests of hunters and anglers,” he said.
The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies has just adopted a resolution calling for more work on the lead issue.
“Any proposed transition to non-lead ammunition or fishing tackle is likely to be difficult, costly and confusing for hunters, anglers, retailers and manufacturers,” the association said.
The groups that petitioned the EPA for the lead ban are the American Bird Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Project Gutpile, a hunters' group that provides educational resources for lead-free hunters and anglers.
“As a hunter in California, compliance with the recent state nonlead ammunition regulation has been simple,” Anthony Prieto, a hunter and co-founder of Project Gutpile, said in a statement. “I still get to hunt, there is no toxic impact on wildlife or my health, and copper bullets shoot better.”
But the National Shooting Sports Foundation disagrees.
The association — which represents the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry — announced its opposition to the petition as soon as it was filed.
It said the petition was wrong in claiming that the use of traditional ammunition by hunters is inconsistent with the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976.
“There is simply no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations that would require restricting or banning the use of traditional ammunition beyond current limitations, such as the scientifically based restriction on waterfowl hunting,” association President Steve Sanetti said in a statement.
The association press statement cited recent statistics from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service showing that from 1981 to 2006, the number of breeding pairs of bald eagles in the United States increased 724 percent. And much like the bald eagle, it added, raptor populations throughout the United States are soaring, hardly a sign they were being harmed by ingesting lead from spent bullets.
Lead shot for use in hunting waterfowl has been banned since 1991.
The Center for Biological Diversity said the petitioners “support exceptions to allow continued use of lead pistol ammunition for home defense and non-hunting activities,” and it added the petition would not affect law enforcement or the military.
