海角大神

Lead shot OK'd for federal lands: what does that mean for conservation?

Zinke鈥檚 order threatens to set back a decades-long effort to get lead shot out of America鈥檚 backcountry. But over the years, environmental groups may have found ways to continue this effort without federal support.

First Look

Ryan Zinke added a few Old West touches to his first day as secretary of the Interior. After riding to his Washington, D.C., office on a horse Thursday morning, the lifelong Montanan 鈥渁bout hunting and fishing becoming activities for the land-owning elite.鈥�

To protect pioneers of more modest means, he then revoked a ban on lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands. Gun-rights and sportsmen groups said that the ban 鈥� introduced on the Obama administration鈥檚 last full day in office 鈥� would have forced them to buy more expensive steel or copper bullets.

But with dying each year from lead poisoning, and with hunting-approved acres under some kind of federal jurisdiction, environmentalists are crying foul.

鈥淭he revoked order would have stopped the needless, incidental poisoning of wild animals by toxic lead ammunition and fishing tackle on more than 150 million acres managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,鈥澛燱ayne Pacelle, the president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States,聽.

Secretary Zinke鈥檚 order threatens to set back a decades-long effort to get lead shot out of America鈥檚 backcountry, advocates say. But that shift may have already gone far enough to continue without federal support.

From an ecologist鈥檚 perspective, a hunt doesn鈥檛 end with a successful kill. A single bullet can split into hundreds of fragments on impact,聽Kelly Sorenson, the executive director of central California's Ventana Wildlife Society, told 海角大神聽in 2014.

Some of those fragments litter the ground, leaving lead to leach into soil and water, where it can work its way up the food chain and poison waterfowl. If the shooter doesn鈥檛 collect his or her kill, or leaves guts behind, any scavengers that come along could easily ingest lead.

That鈥檚 spelled trouble for one of America鈥檚 most iconic endangered species: the California condor. 鈥淐onservationists are working against the specter of an 鈥榚pidemic鈥� level of lead poisoning鈥� in the birds,聽LiveScience reported in 2012.聽鈥淎 tally of 1,154 blood samples taken from 150 birds between 1997 and 2010 found that each year 50 percent to 88 percent exceed the 鈥榮afe鈥� threshold for blood lead levels.鈥�

After concerns about lead contamination first emerged in the 1970s, environmentalists and sportsmen joined forces to address the problem. In 1984, the Monitor鈥檚 Warren Richey reported:

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the nation's largest conservation group and a pro-hunting organization, has petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service for an immediate ban on the use of lead shot in six counties in Midwestern and Western states in an effort to protect eagles and waterfowl from lead poisoning.... The group is also calling for the establishment of similar nontoxic-shot zones in 89 other areas nationwide by next year.... Lead poisoning became a major issue in the hunting community in the mid-1970s , after a federal study estimated that between 1.6 and 2.4 million waterfowl died annually from swallowing lead shot.

The FWS answered the hunters鈥� petition in 1991, with a ban on the use of lead shot for waterfowl. That effort has paid off in the decades since, according to the FWS's聽Ken Richkus. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at about a million to a million and a half ducks a year, in general, that do not die from lead poisoning due to the ban on lead shot,鈥� .

California lawmakers hoped to see similar results with the condor when they approved a statewide ban on lead shot, set to take effect in 2019. The Obama administration鈥檚 ban on lead munitions gave conservationists further reason to celebrate.

But, , these regulations sparked opposition from hunters who claimed that nontoxic rounds cost more and killed less effectively than lead bullets. Gun-rights groups supported them in their larger push against regulations.

After Zinke revoked the ban, the National Rifle Association鈥檚 Chris Cox 鈥渙n behalf of the five million members of the NRA and tens of millions of American sportsmen.鈥� Even the National Wildlife Federation, an early pioneer on this issue, criticized the Obama administration鈥檚 last-minute ban, , saying it would be better to find a solution through more collaboration.

But for many conservationists, Thursday's order marks a setback. to administer their federal lands, further trouble could lie ahead for California鈥檚 efforts to save its condors.

But the anti-lead campaign still has plenty of momentum. on the history of lead poisoning found that the FWS's ban was followed by industrial innovations to develop high-qualify nontoxic shotshells.

found that 鈥淭here is no major difference in the retail price of equivalent lead-free and lead-core ammunition for most popular calibers [sold in the US and Europe]. Lead-free ammunition has set bench-mark standards for accuracy, lethality, and safety.鈥�

It's not just "land-owning elites" who could adopt cheap, accurate bullets, advocates say.聽And the groups that opposed Obama's ban may still be willing to get behind lead-free ammunition, if they feel they are included in the process.

鈥淗aving less lead in the water and soil is better for wildlife,鈥� Collin O鈥橫ara, the National Wildlife Federation鈥檚 president and chief executive officer, told the Huffington Post. 鈥淏ut the best way to do this is not through a policy in the last few days of an administration but to have a science-based collaborative process with sportsmen and states that comes to a solution.鈥�

鈥淚 think most sportsmen want the same outcome,鈥� he continued, 鈥渨hich is healthier wildlife, but the question is the best way to get there to make sure that the outdoor experience isn鈥檛 harmed in the short term.鈥�