Non-lead bullet program to help condors

Citing increasing participation, state officials have extended a voluntary program that combats lead poisoning among California condors by encouraging hunters to use non-lead ammunition.

Wildlife advocates pressing for a statewide ban on lead ammunition acknowledge the program’s successes but say it still isn’t enough to protect the endangered condors, which can ingest lead fragments in piles of deer and elk entrails hunters leave in the wilderness.

In making its decision, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission pointed to surveys in which more than 80 percent of hunters in the Kaibab National Forest reported taking part in the program. That meant reducing lead available to condors by either using non-lead ammunition or by not leaving so-called gut piles for condors to scavenge.

The participation rate rose from 60 percent in 2006, according to the Game and Fish Department.

“They should be pretty proud of these accomplishments for a voluntary program to get such a high compliance rate,” said Kathy Sullivan, California condor project coordinator for Game and Fish.

With money from the Heritage Fund, which comes from lottery revenues, the program educates hunters about the dangers lead poses to condors and provides coupons for free copper ammunition.

At least 12 California condors have died of lead poisoning since the species was reintroduced to northern Arizona in 1996. However, there were no lead-related deaths in 2007, down from four in 2006, according to Chris Parish, condor field project supervisor for the Peregrine Fund, which monitors the health of the condors in cooperation with state officials.

Last year, the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council and Arizona Zoological Society sent two letters urging the Game and Fish Commission to require hunters to use non-lead ammunition statewide to protect condors.

In October, California enacted a law requiring non-lead ammunition for hunting big game and coyotes in the condor’s range.

Sandy Bahr, outreach coordinator for the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, acknowledged the successes of Game and Fish’s voluntary program but said it’s irresponsible for the state to continue allowing hunters to use lead bullets.

“We’ve removed lead from gasoline and paint. We ought to get it out of ammunition as well,” Bahr said.

Cronkite News Service is an intensive professional experience for advanced print and broadcast students in Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.