Threat toward Hunting or Animals?

Over the past few weeks I have told stories of different ways to experience common activities such as fishing from jet skis and using a paddleboard to float down a long stretch of river.  My goal is to show different ways that can make the trip more exhilarating and memorable in order to entice someone to hunt or fish or hike or camp that normally would not.

Our heritage, America’s heritage is based on these skills.  Forefathers such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, George Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt were outdoorsmen before they were leaders.  It is important to pass these experiences and skills to our children so the heritage is not lost forever.

A couple of years ago I wrote a piece about what could happen if the government were to introduce a lead ban.  I only mention this because California has a law in the making to ban all lead in the use of ammunition.

The story I wrote told of the potential threat to hunting and fishing should a lead ban come to be.  One way the anti-hunting community was looking to strike a blow to our heritage was through the use of the Environmental Protection Agency to ban lead in ammunition and fishing lures.

As most hunters know, lead ammunition is much cheaper than other types.  A new hunter is often exposed to hunting by means of small game and bird hunting.  My first love of hunting came from dove hunting.  The action is rapid and one learns how to use a firearm quickly due to the number of shots.  However, someone who has just been introduced to dove hunting usually misses much more than they hit and can shoot several cases of shotgun shells.  At roughly $5.00 per box, a new hunter can spend at most $40.00 on ammunition for a full day’s hunt.  Compared to steel shot that can reach $25.00 per box or more, you can see why someone will be less likely to try hunting if just learning how to shoot.

In the past few weeks we have learned of government eavesdropping and manipulation through different agencies on nearly all Americans.  Much of this tampering and surveillance stems from laws such as the Patriot Act.  Laws designed under good intentions with protection of the people in mind can over time begin a different path.  Just as a janitor is only doing his job by picking up and throwing paper on the floor away, it is easy for one to lose the big picture as the janitor did not look to see that the paper he just threw away was clearly paperwork that had blown off of a nearby desk.

The potential new law in California is already being heralded.  But there are further issues regarding the law.  First, the law is being pushed through on the basis that the California condor is threatened by lead poisoning by feeding on the carcasses of lead shot game animals.  However, the areas where the majority of the condors live and feed are already in a lead free zone.  Second, surveys from biologists are being used for proof of the need of lead free ammunition.  Again though, biologists that have conflicting data are being ignored in the push for the law to pass.

What we have to do now is look at the full picture.  If the banning of lead is required to save a species, it can be understood.  The biologists’ roles in this debate are to keep the species at a sustainable level for future generations.  We cannot ignore data that does not meet our wishes. But we cannot react without know the full picture either.

Continuing the Heritage-More Obstacles

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Last year, North Carolina registered 505,530 licensed hunters.  This was the most since 1994 and continues a trend in which each year since 2002 the number of licensed hunters has increased.  While it is encouraging to see our numbers go up, they still fall behind in the overall picture as far as percentage compared to population growth.

Getting our youth, as well as adults, in the outdoors to participate in activities such as hunting and fishing is imperative to keep the heritage alive.  As mentioned in the past, there are far more distractions and other activities for the population these days than in the past.  Television with hundreds of channels, game consoles and systems, and computers all compete to keep our youth occupied. 

Please read the previous post Heritage of the Outdoors.

Other factors challenging the outdoor heritage are environmental groups distaste for hunting and fishing.  I use environmental groups loosely.  Let me explain a little before continuing with the point.  Hunters and fishermen/women provide funds for wildlife conservation, gamelands, studies, even preservation areas, amongst other programs through purchases of licenses, stamps, excise taxes through the Pittman-Robertson act, memberships and donations through conservations groups such as Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, Quail Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Boone and Crockett, Pope and Young, and many more than can be listed.  In other words, outdoorsmen and women provide the majority of funds to protect both wildlife and land.  They are the true environmentalists.  Meanwhile, other groups seeking to stop hunting and fishing, claim to be environmental organizations.

Back to the point.  As recently as August 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was petitioned to ban all lead products used for hunting and fishing under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA).  The EPA responded they did not have authority under the TSCA to activate such a ban. Currently there is a bill asking for the EPA to be granted that authority.  Kind of a back door approach to allow the EPA to be given power to ban ammunition without having it go through Congress.

Referenced in many of these reports are the effects of lead shot on mourning dove populations.  Lead was banned for waterfowl back in 1991 due to effects on the duck, geese, and swan populations.  Researching studies on dove myself, there are studies saying dove populations have been effected by anywhere from .2% to as high as 6.4%.  I believe the difference in percentages may be based on locality.

It is estimated there are between 1.2 and 1.6 million dove hunters in the United States accounting for 19-21 million birds harvested each season.  The ammunition of choice is lead shot which accounts for 75% of shotgun shells sold each year.  Here is where the assault on potential new hunters, as well as existing hunters comes in.  A box of 25 shells of 7 ½ lead shot, the typical purchase for dove ammunition, costs roughly $6.  On opening day of dove season, a hunter, especially a new hunter, can easily shoot 100 shells equating to roughly $24 worth of ammunition.  The primary alternative to lead is steel shot.  In comparison, a box of 25 shells of steel shot costs roughly $25.  This equates to $100 worth of ammunition.  This does not include any shells used for practicing by shooting skeet or clay pigeons.  The large increase in costs would severely deter new hunters.

Shotshells would not be the only ammunition regulated either.  Most hunting cartridges consist of a lead projectile.  A young hunter’s first rifle is often a .22 caliber.  Ammunition is cheap, so the youth can become familiar with the operation of the rifle by shooting many times.  A box of 100 .22 cartridges runs approximately $7.50.  Changing the composition of the bullet could increase the cost by 4 times that amount.  Again, the increase would likely eliminate many new hunter's first excursion, or at least repeated excursions into the outdoors.

What we must do is look at this issue as a whole.  If we go to an overall ban on lead, the numbers of hunters will surely decrease, causing us to lose massive amounts of funding through license sales and excise taxes (Pittman-Robertson Act).  These funds will either no longer provide the conservation efforts needed for our environment or they will have to be supplemented from other avenues in government (overall taxes).  Also, with a decrease in hunters, less game will be taken.  A raise in limits on game would not provide enough control, as the ammunition would still be too costly to take only a limited numbers of game animals.

Wildlife biologists are charged with the task of determining the mortality rates of the different game animals, and if lead is effecting populations such as dove to a detrimental level, then limits should be adjusted downward.  However, it was not long ago dove limits were increased from 12 to 15 birds per day, indication the population has grown rather than decreased.

Perhaps the answer is not to ban all lead ammunition and fishing equipment.  If there are areas in particular that are affected in an adverse way, the local/state governments can and should regulate accordingly.  But to ban all, may have an effect that is much more detrimental than the effect of lead.

Bill Howard writes a weekly outdoors column for the Wilson Times and Yancey County News and the bowhunting blog site GiveEmTheShaft.com. He is a Hunter Education and International Bowhunter Education instructor, lifetime member of the North Carolina Bowhunters Association, Bowhunter Certification Referral Service Chairman, member and official measurer of Pope and Young, and a regular contributor to North Carolina Bowhunter Magazine.