Getting the lead out

Recently signed law meant to protect condors is creating angst and confusion among hunters.

Published online on Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2008

Chatting on a cell phone while driving isn't the only activity that will be illegal beginning next month.

Hunters throughout central California are bracing for a new law that prohibits the use of lead ammunition in historic California condor range. The law goes into effect July 1.

Signed in October by Gov. Schwarzenegger, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act (AB 821) concluded that lead fragments from hunters' bullets pose a threat to scavenging condors when ingested. Just last week, a condor died at the Los Angeles Zoo from lead poisoning, though no one can say for sure if the lead came from a bullet.

After Schwarzenegger stamped his approval, California's Fish and Game Commission expanded the law to include not only ammunition from hunting rifles, but also shotguns, muzzle loaders and rimfire firearms such as .22s.

Between 30,000 and 50,000 hunters will be affected by the new law, according to the Department of Fish and Game. That's compared to a statewide population of 300 condors, about half of which are living in the wild.

Hunters in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley are among those most affected because the geographic area where lead ammunition is prohibited includes deer zones D7 and D8, which together encompass Fresno, Madera and Tulare counties east of Highway 99.

And as you might have guessed, few of them are happy about it.

"It's amazing to us that lead ammunition can pose a threat to condors while other carrion-eaters like eagles and vultures are growing in numbers," said Dave Schiavon of Clovis, a member of the California Deer Association. "That makes no sense."

Why eastern Fresno and Madera counties were included in the non-lead zone remains unclear. The last documented condor sighting in D7 occurred in 1971 near Balch Camp, according to DFG Region 4 wildlife management supervisor Kevin O'Connor.

Doug Bowman, a retired DFG wildlife biologist living in Madera County, said it's illogical for the ban to include areas where there are no condors.

"If there were bona fide condor sightings in zone D7, I wouldn't be fighting this at all," said Bowman, who has voiced his displeasure to the Board of Supervisors in both Fresno and Madera counties, along with the Fish and Game Commission.

"I'm not against the law. I just can't see having the law in counties where there are no condors."

Once nearly extinct, California condors have benefitted from a conservation effort that may be the most expensive ever undertaken in the United States. We're talking tens of millions of dollars.

Anyone who has seen these majestic birds in flight and heard the whooshing sound made by air rushing beneath their wings -- as I have -- can't help but pull for their survival. But I also can't help but think this law, while well-intentioned, goes overboard.

For starters, non-lead ammunition is expensive (nearly twice the cost of lead ammunition) and difficult to find. While area stores such as Herb Bauer Sporting Goods and Valley Rod & Gun have started stocking copper-based cartridges in the most common calibers and styles, those with rare or older firearms are currently out of luck.

"There are guys with guns that have been in their families for eons, and now they can't get ammunition to comply with the law," Schiavon said. "It's completely crazy."

The law, which applies to big game and non-game hunting, is filled with ambiguities. For example, it will soon be illegal to shoot ground squirrels with lead bullets -- one of the most popular forms of shooting in this area -- but tree squirrels are fair game.