Canales News Briefs

August 8, 2009 (Amended Saturday PM)

"...4. Do you anticipate that there will be any issues since we

do not restrict the use of lead for upland game hunting?

My immediate response is no but I am going to follow up on

this with some program partners. My thinking as it relates to

upland game hunting is that there is currently no evidence

indicating that this presents any threat to condors. Given the

small likelihood that condors will locate animals of this size

in a not recovered in hunting situation I don't think there is

much cause for concern..."

- Joseph Brandt, USFWS Biologist on the Condor

Recovery Team, in an email to Bob Stafford of

the California Department of Fish & Game,

October 30, 2008. This statement was submitted

to the Public Record at the California Fish & Game

Commission in Woodland, California, on August 6,

2009. It can be found in the Public Record in the

documents annotated as FWS012448-FWS012449.

"...I find that the isotopic data presented by the Church authors do not

support their conclusion that ' incidental ingestion of ammunition

embedded in carcasses that condors feed on is the principal source

of elevated lead exposure that threatens the recovery of condors in

the wild.' There are other common environmental and industrial lead

sources that have isotopic ratios which are indistinguishable from the

isotope ratios of the lead found in the blood of the condors and the

ammunition lead characterized by the Church authors. It is well known

that condors ingest a wide variety of small metallic items. Many of these

ingestible items contain lead. Some very obvious examples of small

lead-containing items are fishing sinkers and automobile wheel weights.

Less obvious items that contain significant amounts of lead include

galvanized steel hardware; brass pipe and plumbing fittings; and brass

hardware, such as screws, nuts and washers. The Church authors appear

to be unaware of the simple fact that the lead smelters which supply the

ammunition community also supply all other lead users including the

battery industry, the fishing-sinker industry, the wheel weight industry,

the brass industry and the galvanized coatings industry. Isotope ratios

cannot be used to reliably distinguish among any of these end-uses for

lead since lead that is refined and alloyed the same day/week at a

smelter may go, and usually does go, to the producers of any or all of

these items. The Church authors present only partial and non-representative

data for backround environmental lead from the references they cite.

This is potentially misleading to the casual reader and negates their

primary conclusion as to the identification of the 'principal' lead source.

The isotope ratios for ammunition characterized in the Church paper are

totally overlapped by the true range of isotope ratios for backround

environmental lead in the Central California area of interest. Furthermore,

the very limited number of bullet and shot lead samples characterized

for Pb 207/Pb206 ratio in the study is not shown to be representative of

the bulk of the ammunition in Central California, much less the United

States. The forensic literature shows the true range of isotope ratios for

common commercial ammunition to be much larger than reported by the

Church authors. The ignorance of the authors regarding the industrial

lead industry, the failure to report and discuss the representative back-

round lead levels as published in their article references, and the failure

to consult the forensic science literature and report well-known data for

isotopic compositions of various ammunition leads constitute fatal flaws

in the science of the paper. The isotopic data that the Church authors

present cannot and does not address the likelihood that ammunition is

the principal, major or even minor source of the elevated lead levels

found in the blood of the condors in their study. This isotopic data alone

cannot distinguish among any of the common industrial lead sources and,

therefore, cannot determine the probability that one source is more likely

than any other. Thus, the authors present no scientific basis for claiming

ammunition is the ' principal' source of lead...."

- Excerpt from " A Review of ' Ammunition is the Principal

Source of Lead Accumulated by California Condors

Re-introduced to the Wild' from a Materials Science

Standpoint", by Erik Randich, Ph.D. Dr. Randich's

report was submitted to the Public Record at the

California Fish and Game Commission Hearing in

Woodland, California, on August 6, 2009. It can

be found as a document annotated as RAND000001-

RAND000023.

"...In the period studied by Johnson (Johnson, 2007) there were 52

condor deaths that had no link to lead poisoning. In addition, there is

ample evidence of numerous non-ammunition sources of lead in the

environment whereas it has been acknowledged that there is very

little evidence that condors actually feed on the carcasses of hunter

shot game.

Although it has been demonstrated (Randich 2008, Saba 2008) that

lead isotopic analysis cannot be used to link hunters ammunition to

lead exposure in condors, some researchers persist in claiming that

lead ammunition has a narrow isotopic ratio range that is distinguishable

from environmental lead.

Although these researchers publicly claim that lead isotope analysis

shows that hunters' lead ammunition is the source of lead exposure in

condors, recent email communications obtained through the Public

Records Act show these proponents of lead isotope analysis are fully

aware of the inconsistencies in their position...."

- Excerpt from " Comment to the California Fish and Game

Commission in opposition to the proposed regulations to

proscribe the use of lead ammunition for upland game

hunting", by Don Saba, Ph.D and Tammie Pearce, D.V.M.

Said "Comment" was submitted to the Public Record in the

California Fish and Game Commission Hearing in Woodland,

California on August 6, 2009.

"...The DDE issue is fairly cut and dry. Based on the data we have

gathered thus far we know it will keep us from achieving our condor

recovery goal in Big Sur..."

- Quote from an email from Joseph Burnett, Wildlife Biologist

for the Ventana Wildlife Society, to Matthew Johnson of

the USFWS, Kelly Sorenson of the Ventana Wildlife Society,

Robert Risebrough of the Bodega Bay Institute, and Donald

Smith of UC Santa Cruz. The email was dated January 15, 2009,

and involves a discussion of the harmful effects of legacy

pesticides ingested by condors from the unregulated feeding

of contaminated marine carrion along a major portion of the

California condor's range. This email was submitted into the

Public Record at the California Fish and Game Commission

Hearing in Woodland, California on August 6, 2009. It can be

found in the documents annotated as FWS012661-FWS012668.

To All,

What a puzzlement- If Lamestream Journalism (even Outdoor Lamestream Journalism), refuses to report that the California Fish & Game Commission voted 4-1 to reject bans on lead shot for upland game hunting in "condor country" on August 6, 2009, did it happen?

Answer- You bet your tucchus it did.

WE ARE THE NRA:

The Commission's vote was barely 5 minutes old Thursday morning. Blackberrys were getting hammered, cell phone minutes were being burned at prodigious rates, and I had to start figuring out how to get something to eat since I had skipped breakfast due to last minute preparations.

A young fellow walked up to me with a small smile, and shook my hand thanking me for a simple 4 minute presentation. The relief in his eyes said it all, and in turn made it all worthwhile. Forgotten were the headaches, the late nights extending until dawn sometimes, and every other inconvenience one encounters when one is doing one's homework.

That is because this young guy, whose name I did not have a chance, nor a clue, to get was contributing as best he could given the current economic situation. To him, a requirement to use a $ 40 dollar box of shotgun shells just to hunt wild dove, quail, chukar, pheasant, rabbits, and turkeys would have likely ended his hunts in California.

He showed up to a Fish & Game Commission on a Thursday, a work day. He had to take time off of work, so that he could answer the call the NRA put out asking for folks to show up in support against a lead shot ban on upland game. He drove some distance, I am not sure how far, and he literally walked into a country club world dressed like a farmer, or ranch hand, or construction worker. He was the epitome of an "Every Man".

I am not sure how much the information on this condor/lead ammunition topic gets through to folks. Personally, it has become second nature to me now, given the years of reading documents, the tutelage of a Ph.D chemist, and the access to Condor Recovery Team emails (no, reading about cloacal swabs of buzzards and which Arizona Game and Fish official was "house-sitting" for a certain Peregrine Fund worker's cat is not something I would normally choose to do...).

But given all the troubles in the world, I am certain that regular folk would be hard pressed to afford the time, energy, or even obsessive behavior needed to produce the material and effort that helped lead to that one vote by the Commission. First things first, food on the table and a roof over the head are top priorities when Liberals are holding the economy hostage. Yet guys like this are the backbone, and the soul, of who we of the NRA are.

He came when he was called.

He gave his $ 35 bucks just like every other guy and gal who has faith in the Bill of Rights as written, not spun by flacks and hacks trying put us under the yoke.

He was there to show that conservation and stewardship are not the sole monopolies of certain guys who live in Carmel, and who could not seemingly fill out a Form 700 until the FPPC had to start an investigation.

He gave all that he could. In a sense, his presence was a challenge to me- Did I give what I could?

Perhaps. I cannot be the judge of that, though there were smiles all around afterward for an effort well done.

But without guys like him, and all the other members and volunteers, we would have not prevailed last Thursday.

To prevail, we needed every donation, large and small. We needed help with various specialties. We needed the support from officials all the way to the top, who committed resources based upon the evidence we presented, as well no little faith, that we could prevail in our campaign. We needed emails, letters, phone calls, passing the word, and even the Server From Hell got thoroughly wrung out by those whom a certain member of the Department of Fish & Game referred to as "...cows out of the barn...".

In short, we needed everyone in the NRA. And we got them. They came when called.

In turn, Thursday's decision is Everyone's Victory to savor.

After all, We Are The NRA.

We are half-snapping turtle, and half alligator.

We have the best hound dogs, the fastest horses, ATV's, trucks and Jeeps available.

We will work all night, and work all day, and do it again until we "get 'r done".

We have the prettiest women, but watch out- They shoot to an Olympic standard AND can field dress their own ungulates, thank you very much.

And when you get us mad, or perhaps "mis-speak", you had better be ready for war (politically speaking, of course). That's because when we say we are "oiling up the Winchesters", we know of what we say from first-hand experience. We "whup" our opponents, and then go for their lunch money so long as they feel they can "mess with" the Second Amendment and all the hunting and shooting traditions.

The battles over junk science are, unfortunately, far from over. But as long as We of the NRA are on watch, We are the Big Dog in the Hunt, rest assured. And our bite is worse than our bark, as long was we are who we are. As long as we have got folks who will turn up like that when the call is made, we will prevail. And woe to those who forget that simple fact.

A Much Needed Correction, after a "T-Rex" Kind of Moment Earlier Today:

Hopefully all will forgive not mentioning a group of fellow firearms and hunting rights activists who were "with us" at Woodland on August 6, working hard on defeating the lead shot ban. Without these valuable friends and allies, we would not be where we are today:

Bill Gaines and all the folks at the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance.

Bill Wiese and all the guys at Cal Guns who gave us more time.

Tom Pederson and those guys from CRPA that could make it.

If there is anyone I missed, it's because the celebratory brewski's have had their effect since about noon on Thursday.

Thanks guys, we couldn't have done it without you.

Respectfully,

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA

except as noted.