By Kelly Sorenson
One of California's most iconic species, the condor, is wavering near extinction due to lead poisoning from lead ammunition - and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has the solution on his desk.
In California, 12 condors have died from lead poisoning, making it the most significant source of condor mortality. As a member of the California Condor Recovery Team, I help to test wild-flying condors for lead poisoning. In the fall, immediately following deer hunting season, blood lead levels in condors rise significantly higher than any other time of year. We have recovered lead fragments, pellets, and whole projectiles from the digestive systems of dead condors.
In 2005, I trapped condor 208, a female whose blood test showed a lead level of 1.70 parts per million - 17 times higher than the recommended not-to-exceed level in humans. After rehabilitation at the Los Angeles Zoo, this condor was released and went on to hatch the first chick in the Ventana Wilderness in over 100 years. Our intervention in this and many other cases is all that is keeping condors in the wild. But this kind of intensive management would not be necessary if we could get the lead out of the condor's habitat.
Lead ammunition has a tendency to fragment into hundreds of pieces upon impact, which should also be of concern to hunters who provide game meat to their families. Lead is toxic; we've banned it from our gasoline and our paint. It doesn't make sense to pump it into the environment in the form of bullets.
There is no hope for condors until non-lead ammunition becomes more widely used throughout their range. Schwarzenegger now has a unique opportunity to make that happen, by signing AB 821 into law. Signing this bill, which would require the use of non-toxic, non-lead ammunition throughout the condor's range, would show that he is truly an environmental leader, and not beholden to the gun lobby.
The hunting community has a longstanding tradition of conservation, and should be embracing the use of widely available non-lead ammunition. Barnes Bullets, the leading manufacturer of non-lead ammunition, produces 137 kinds of projectiles for 74 cartridges. The National Rifle Association awarded Barnes Bullets its "Golden Bullseye Award" for best new product of the year for its most recent non-lead variety, the MRX (Maximum Range).
Non-lead ammunition is gaining widespread support in the hunting community; two military and national guard bases, Fort Hunter Liggett and Camp Roberts, both popular hunting areas, have already phased out the use of lead bullets in hunting big game, specifically because of the danger lead poses to condors and the environment. The largest private hunting preserve in the state, the Tejon Ranch, has also banned lead in big-game hunting.
The rights of hunters are not affected by replacing toxic lead ammunition with safer alternatives. Regardless of whether the governor signs AB 821 into law, hunters will still hunt. But if the use of lead ammunition is continued in condor range, we will lose one of the most magnificent species of birds in the world.
There is a simple solution: use non-lead ammunition. Voluntary efforts have been in effect for 10 years, and they do not work. The only way to solve this problem is to stop using toxic lead ammunition.
In a nod to the condor's magnificence, Schwarzenegger chose the condor as the symbol of California on the state quarter. The governor now has another choice to make - whether the condor will remain California's symbol, or disappear again from California's skies.
KELLY SORENSON is the executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society and a member of the California Condor Recovery Team. She wrote this article for the Mercury News.
