January 26, 2005

"...We need to eliminate a lot of ammunition from the

     environment..."

 

                    - Pinnacles National Monument Biologist

                      Rebecca Leonard, in a July 2004 story

                      on condor recovery at Pinnaclenews.com

 

To All,

     A ban by any other name.......

 

Riddle Me This....:

     What can fly at 60 miles an hour, range over a chunk of

California from Gilroy and just south of Alameda County to the Tejon Ranch, and otherwise threaten to shut down hunting and target shooting statewide?

 

      Answer: Condor # 287 with a copy of the Endangered Species Act tucked (figuratively speaking, of course) in it's back pocket.

 

     In other words, the range of just one of California's pet condors would seemingly encompass a swath of land larger than a host of Eastern Seaboard Blue States. What is more, wildlife biologists have attached radio and GPS transmitters to a limited amount of birds so as to document such wanderlust for scientific posterity.

 

    Thus, with this data, it is clear that said scavenger cannot be kept "down on the ole' wildlife sanctuary" by any means less than what Monty Python did to the Famous Parrot back in Scene 47. Hunters and target shooters are thus faced with the dilemma that the current petition to ban hunting with lead ammunition throughout the condor's range has the potential to encompass a rather large portion of the state.

 

     Strangely enough, wildlife biologists who have a reason to be "in the know" seem to still think that the jury is out on lead ammunition being the prime cause of mortality of a duly listed species.

 

     For example, they are currently implementing a training program designed to "teach" condors that power towers and lines are bad news, over fears that they could electrocute themselves back to the brink of extinction. (The biologists at the Ventana Wilderness Society were supposed to make a decision earlier this month as to whether the training was working enough to re-release a test group back into the wild. So far, no news yet as to whether said release has been safely accomplished.).

 

     Likewise there are efforts to remove the birds from the wild when the threat of West Nile Virus or Newcastle's disease (one that commonly affects poultry and domesticated game birds) increases.

 

     Additional observations also seem to indicate that wild-born condor chicks have been made sick, or even killed, because parental condors will feed them common trash, such as bottle caps.

 

     In fact, Kate Woods at Pinnaclenews.com has pointed out, in a series of stories on the condor program, that at least 2 chicks have died in the past 3 years due to the ingestion of ordinary garbage fed to them by parent birds. Objects such as fence wire, glass, metal washers, as well as zinc and copper from unlisted sources are attributed to the demise of the chicks as well. (Interestingly enough, this "spot mortality rate", due to the ingestion of garbage, exceeds the known mortality rate related to lead ammunition over the past few years.).

 

    Since one source of copper that could adversely impact condor chicks comes from the "bullet of choice" of the Project Gutpile crowd, it may be that the ultimate "unintended" consequence of the Center for Biological Diversity's petition is to ban all known modern projectiles until such time as they could pass muster with the FDA. (The Center for Biological Diversity would be probably be laughed out of the State Capitol for trying just as hard to make garbage illegal, but that is another story.).

 

     Not surprisingly, condor biologists are also admitting that they expect the birds to spread out across the entire state and beyond, not just in the terrain adjacent to the 6 approved release sites currently being used in the recovery program. Given that there are additional release sites in Arizona, and that the condor recovery program is a "national" one, there is good potential for environmental activists to apply for bans on lead ammunition over large swathes of open land west of the Mississippi and south of the Continental Divide in Montana over the next few years.

 

     As such, it is clear that it will take significant efforts on the part of the hunting, varminting and target-shooting communities to help stop the Center for Biological Diversity's "bums-rush-to-judgment". It is becoming clearer by the nanosecond that one UC Davis "study" does not good science make. Perhaps sportsmen can lend their voice to the need for additional funds for further study of all the various causes of mortality for the modern condor. Anything else would mean that the joke is on the gun owner, once again.

 

Story basis may be found at:

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sv-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sv_archive&id=95

 

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sb-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sbc_archive&id=158

 

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sb-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sbc_archive&id=98

 

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sb-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sbc_archive&id=48

 

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sb-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sbc_archive&id=48

 

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sb-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sbc_archive&id=3

 

http://www.pinnaclenews.com/sb-edition/story.php?
section=stories_sbc_archive&id=166

 

 

Note: It is still not too late to contact the Fish & Game Commission and let them know that the current petition to ban lead ammunition for hunting, varminting, and rodent control purposes is premature, to say the least. Please contact the Fish & Game Commission at:

 

Respectfully,

SFVMC-NRA

 

Copyright 2005 Anthony Canales

All rights reserved.