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Larry Skinner of Camanche Hills Hunting Preserve saw change coming last year and stepped up to meet it.
Hunters will not be allowed to use lead ammunition for hunting pheasant and other upland game birds on the preserve, effective Oct. 1, Skinner said.
The move is the latest in a series of government and private restrictions on the use of lead ammunition dating back decades.
They've run the gamut from small, local steps such as the Camanche Hills ban to major, sweeping changes, including the federal ban on lead shot for hunting waterfowl starting in the 1990s.
In California, lead ammunition was banned in July 2008 for big-game hunting in condor habitat.
The Camanche Hills ban is voluntary, so far. Skinner, owner and co-manager of Camanche Hills, had heard hints that the East Bay Municipal Utility District was looking for ways to keep lead out of the water supply. The district owns the land around Camanche Reservoir, including the site of the hunting club near Ione.
"We weren't forced to make the change, but we saw the writing that eventually we would be," Skinner said. "They're very proactive."
The club agreed to limit hunters to steel, tungsten or other nonlead shot for upland game, and the utility district's board approved the changes in June.
Lead shot can still be used in the trap and skeet range and other areas, but Camanche Hills will build berms to help keep the toxic metal out of the reservoir and monitor the area to avoid problems.
In 2008, state officials banned lead ammo in condor country because conservationists believe the birds were ingesting fragments of poisonous lead ammunition as they scavenged for food. Tests showed the metal in the blood of condors, sometimes at dangerous levels.
Lead shot flakes or fragments, tainting gut piles left after hunters dress their kill. Another suspected lead source: wild pigs or other game that escape after being shot, then die and are scavenged by condors.
The no-lead zone covers roughly 20 percent of all the land in California, starting south of San Joaquin County and encompassing all or parts of 15 counties in a V-shaped swath.
Fewer than two dozen California condors remained in the wild in the early 1980s. The carrion eaters, with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet, were listed as endangered in 1967.
The rule change affected an estimated 50,000 big game hunters who shoot in the condor zone, said Harry Morse, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
It takes some driving to get to condor territory from Sacramento, but local hunters are feeling the effects.
"Anybody shooting pigs south of here is probably in the condor range," said Mike Merlo, sales manager at Badger John's Huntin' Stuff in Sacramento. He estimated about 30 percent of the rifle ammunition his store is selling is nonlead.
More copper ammo is available this year than there was when the rules went into effect, but retailers warn that distribution can be uneven.
Spot inspections last year showed about 90 percent of the hunters who were checked in the condor zone had nonlead ammunition, said Harry Morse, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.
More...
Hunters will not be allowed to use lead ammunition for hunting pheasant and other upland game birds on the preserve, effective Oct. 1, Skinner said.
The move is the latest in a series of government and private restrictions on the use of lead ammunition dating back decades.
They've run the gamut from small, local steps such as the Camanche Hills ban to major, sweeping changes, including the federal ban on lead shot for hunting waterfowl starting in the 1990s.
In California, lead ammunition was banned in July 2008 for big-game hunting in condor habitat.
The Camanche Hills ban is voluntary, so far. Skinner, owner and co-manager of Camanche Hills, had heard hints that the East Bay Municipal Utility District was looking for ways to keep lead out of the water supply. The district owns the land around Camanche Reservoir, including the site of the hunting club near Ione.
"We weren't forced to make the change, but we saw the writing that eventually we would be," Skinner said. "They're very proactive."
The club agreed to limit hunters to steel, tungsten or other nonlead shot for upland game, and the utility district's board approved the changes in June.
Lead shot can still be used in the trap and skeet range and other areas, but Camanche Hills will build berms to help keep the toxic metal out of the reservoir and monitor the area to avoid problems.
In 2008, state officials banned lead ammo in condor country because conservationists believe the birds were ingesting fragments of poisonous lead ammunition as they scavenged for food. Tests showed the metal in the blood of condors, sometimes at dangerous levels.
Lead shot flakes or fragments, tainting gut piles left after hunters dress their kill. Another suspected lead source: wild pigs or other game that escape after being shot, then die and are scavenged by condors.
The no-lead zone covers roughly 20 percent of all the land in California, starting south of San Joaquin County and encompassing all or parts of 15 counties in a V-shaped swath.
Fewer than two dozen California condors remained in the wild in the early 1980s. The carrion eaters, with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet, were listed as endangered in 1967.
The rule change affected an estimated 50,000 big game hunters who shoot in the condor zone, said Harry Morse, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
It takes some driving to get to condor territory from Sacramento, but local hunters are feeling the effects.
"Anybody shooting pigs south of here is probably in the condor range," said Mike Merlo, sales manager at Badger John's Huntin' Stuff in Sacramento. He estimated about 30 percent of the rifle ammunition his store is selling is nonlead.
More copper ammo is available this year than there was when the rules went into effect, but retailers warn that distribution can be uneven.
Spot inspections last year showed about 90 percent of the hunters who were checked in the condor zone had nonlead ammunition, said Harry Morse, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.
More...
