Go Lead-Free for Wildlife

[Sanford] Hunters have long been stewards of wildlife. They have met conservation challenges in the past and turned them into opportunities to protect the natural world and wildlife. While doing this, they have built traditions that connect people to wild places and things. Even now, hunters work to find the opportunities and solutions for conservation and new challenges. Hi. Sanford Smith here with Penn State Extension. A few years ago I did a video on non-lead ammo for deer hunting. This video is going to be similar, but with some new information, and I'm joined by Adam Miller. He's with the North American lead-free partnership. And that partnership is something new that you're going to learn about today, as well as some new information about this topic. So Adam, thanks for joining me today. [Adam] Thank you for having me, Sandy. [Sanford] It's good to be here with Adam. And we're going to talk a little bit about the problem first and the problem of lead getting into wildlife as a result of hunting. [Adam] Yes, exactly. So the major, the major issue that we see, and it's something that that I didn't know myself as a hunter, is the idea that my choice of hunting ammunition can have an impact on scavenging wildlife. When a lead bullet goes into an animal that bullets moving really fast. That bullet can actually have little fragments that break off and peel off into the animal. When that animal is field dressed and the gut piles left out, it's a great food source for wildlife. Unfortunately, if there's lead bullet fragments in it, that's actually a potential source of lead poisoning for scavenging birds and all kinds of different wildlife out there. There's been great research that's come out on the impacts of hunting ammunition. So researchers found that lead levels started peaking and scavenging wildlife and it coincided directly with the hunting season. They also looked at the isotope signature of that lead that was present in the blood of those scavengers, and it most closely matched that of hunting ammunition. And last but not least, when opportunities were offered to hunters to use lead-free hunting ammunition, they actually saw a decrease in the number of wildlife that were impacted by lead poisoning in those areas. [Sanford] Wow. That's interesting. Now, some years ago, there was a ban on using lead ammunition for waterfowl hunting. That's not what we're talking about here today. We're talking about the use of lead ammunition and rifles, and how that can expand and cause many fragments of lead to go all throughout the meat. So if you want to learn more about that, you can watch the video that we produced here a few years ago. The link is right here on the screen. Adam, let's talk a little bit about the partnership that you're involved with. [Adam] Yeah. So the partnership is made up of almost 80 different hunting groups that are out there. Most of those groups are state, fish and wildlife agencies, or it's made up of individual hunter groups that are out there. It's a great group. And collectively that group has come together and said, we endeavor to provide information, education, resources and incentives to hunters to understand how to get lead out of the food chain. So whether that's using things like lead free hunting ammunition or doing things like making sure the gut pile that has lead in it isn't available to scavenging wildlife to eat and potentially be poisoned. [Sanford] Lastly, what have been the results. What's the progress of the kind of work you've been doing? [Adam] Well, it's been really exciting, Sandy. We've actually found that, I mean, this probably isn't a surprise to a lot of folks. When you provide hunters with information, education, and resources, hunters proactively are going out there and doing everything they can to benefit wildlife, to ensure performance and to help protect the future of hunting. [Sanford] Right. Adam is involved in many different things and a lot of it is around education. You meet with groups today. We were, with a group of Penn State students, and they were learning about this issue and watching, shooting into ballistic gel lead and lead-free ammo. Tell us how people could get a hold of you if they want to learn more. [Adam] Yeah. So we have a great website. It's, leadfreepartnership.org. We have educational resources there, opportunities that if you want to reach out to us, you can talk to us. We're happy to chat about what caliber it is you're shooting or what might be some tips and tricks. You can also go online and access resources to learn all about how to make a switch, or how to adopt different best management practices. And last but not least, we have opportunities there that you can learn about incentive programs in your area. [Sanford] Well, Adam, thank you very much for joining me. [Adam] Thanks for having me. [Sanford] And thank you, folks for listening.