[obol] Re: Lead in the Environment
- From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "Richard W. Musser" <mussermcevoy@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2015 07:50:51 -0800
Hi Dick & All,
Birders (along with falconers) have a stake in the outcome and we all
could do well to read up on the issues, so as to play an informed role
in the public discussion that affects our recreational interest. Along
with California Condors, there have been documented cases of lead
poisoning among Bald Eagles, and presumably this could affect Turkey
Vultures and any other species that scavenge carcasses left by hunters.
What I was trying to suggest (though perhaps not very effectively), in
mentioning the copper-jacketed lead .45 bullet that I picked up while
birding two days ago, is that there are both "hunters" and "gunners" out
there. By the latter category I mean the many (perhaps the majority) of
gun owners who don't hunt. This includes gun enthusiasts, target
shooters, people worried about "home defense," and the "open carry"
folks you see sipping lattés in Starbucks, not to mention a few more
colorful folks who are preparing for the apocalypse and buy their
bullets by the case.
I suspect that "gunners" account for the major fraction of
lead-containing bullet sales, and hence are the ones who are going to
complain the most about the expected 10-20% increase in price. A hunter
can spend 3 days waiting to shoot one bullet, whereas a gunner can
easily go through 200 rounds in an hour on the shooting range -- or in
more "informal" settings.
Since the bullet that I found is of the type typically used in pistols,
not in deer rifles, I would attribute it to a "gunner" and not a
"hunter." There are a lot of "gunners" out there.
Increasingly when I go birding in the Willamette Valley, I come across
human-silhouette targets. At Luckiamute State Natural Area (Luckiamute
Landing) a few years ago, someone shot a 3-D human-torso type of target
to pieces which we wound up cleaning up as part of the prairie
restoration project. I've also seen numerous human-silhouette paper
targets on Dunn Forest and various places in the Coast Range and western
Cascades foothills, most recently during the Oakridge CBC.
Aside from the disturbing aspect of birding in places where people have
been developing their skills for shooting at other humans, I'm
mentioning this to illustrate how widespread "gunners" have become.
These folks obviously aren't working on developing their skills for
hunting any type of legally recognized game species.
The "gunners" have far more at stake in the lead-ammo issue, and are
doing their best to frame it as part of an "anti-hunting jihad," see for
example:
http://www.huntfortruth.org/born-to-re-wild-by-david-halbrook/
to see the level of rhetoric, which in this case also includes an
assault on the idea of "conservation biology."
My impression is that the average hunter is going to be receptive to
conservation arguments for reducing lead in the environment. Birders and
bird conservationists who are interested in making progress on the issue
of lead in the environment would do well to recognize the distinction
between hunters and "gunners," and focus on working with the many
hunters who take conservation seriously.
Good birding,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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