Tejon Ranch bans lead ammo

[spectr17]

TEJON BANS LEAD AMMO -- jim matthews outdoor column & news update -- 28feb07

Tejon Ranch bans use of lead hunting ammunition

By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service

The Tejon Ranch Corporation will ban all lead hunting ammunition on its property -- including lead rimfire and varmint hunting ammunition -- beginning in 2008, according to Robert Stine, president and CEO of 270,000-acre ranch. Touted as a move to protect endangered California condors that feed and roost on the property, it may be more about getting extensive developments approved on the ranch.

Scientific studies have shown that condors and other scavengers feed on the remnants of hunter-shot game, picking up lead bullet residue in the process. In some cases, enough lead is ingested to kill the birds.

"We decided we could and should do something about it," Stine said. "We decided the time to act is now."

The Tejon Ranch has an aggressive hunting program for its free-ranging herds of deer, elk, antelope, and wild pigs, along with hunting program for wild turkeys, doves, quail, and varmints. Approximately 1,800 hunters a year use the property, and starting next year lead ammunition will be banned on the ranch.

While most conservation groups lauded the move by ranch managers, they also recognize the effort is mostly grandstanding. The California Fish and Game Commission is on the verge of banning lead big game hunting ammunition throughout condor range, including the Tejon. If the proposed regulation is approved, the lead ammunition would be banned for 2007 fall hunting seasons, making much of Stine's proclamation moot.

We applaud Tejon Ranch's decision to get the lead out for condors, and if the state's largest private landholder can go lead-free, then the rest of California should be able to follow suit," said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity (CDB). "Unfortunately, the urban-sprawl developments planned for Tejon Ranch are also a gun to the head of condor recovery efforts. If Tejon pulls the trigger on these developments, the resulting habitat destruction and disturbance could prove just as lethal to condors as any bullet."

The Tejon Ranch Corporation is moving ahead with plans for several huge developments that will destroy or degrade wildlife habitat and create additional deadly threats to the birds and all of the ranch's other diverse wildlife resources. According to the CDB, the company's history with condors is infamous: It opposed reintroduction of the species into their historic range, sued the government to block reintroduction near the ranch, and tried to have condors' Endangered Species Act protection removed. During a 2003 hunt, one of oldest remaining wild-born condors was illegally shot and killed by a Tejon hunter, and now the company is seeking an unprecedented federal permit to "take" (kill, harass, or harm) condors so it can move forward with these ill-advised developments.

"Eliminating lead bullets is a step in the right direction, but Tejon is poised to take several steps backward with developments that will destroy the unique values and ecological integrity of Tejon Ranch," said Ileene Anderson, CDB biologist. "The Tejon's proposed 28,500-acre Tejon Mountain Village [development] will devastate the heart of the condor's critical habitat."

 

[Metdawg44]

You know what's coming next? Hunting is going to be banned throughout the Condor range. The anti's are going to use this stragety like the domino principal.....start with one animal, one small region and build on it.
I bet electrical high wires kill more Condors than bullets do.

 

[kphunter]

In AZ, the AZGFD asks hunters to refrain from using lead bullets or shotgun shells in areas where condors nest. They even mail drawn hunters a $50 gift certificate to Sportsmans Warehouse to purchase copper bullets or non-lead shells. But it's not mandatory at this point, but this may set precedents in some states.

KP

 

[Kentuck]

IMHO they are only doing to make the developments they are planning look better. It's more critical to have habitat. Can't have both develpment and habitat.

 

[brknarrow]

boycott tejon. ban the condor. send some money to tom arnold to feel better bout your carbon footprints

 

[Speckmisser]

Just curious... but why boycott Tejon?

 

[billrob]

Why?

The Tejon Ranch Corporation is moving ahead with plans for several huge developments that will destroy or degrade wildlife habitat and create additional deadly threats to the birds and all of the ranch's other diverse wildlife resources. According to the CDB, the company's history with condors is infamous: It opposed reintroduction of the species into their historic range, sued the government to block reintroduction near the ranch, and tried to have condors' Endangered Species Act protection removed. During a 2003 hunt, one of oldest remaining wild-born condors was illegally shot and killed by a Tejon hunter, and now the company is seeking an unprecedented federal permit to "take" (kill, harass, or harm) condors so it can move forward with these ill-advised developments.

"Eliminating lead bullets is a step in the right direction, but Tejon is poised to take several steps backward with developments that will destroy the unique values and ecological integrity of Tejon Ranch," said Ileene Anderson, CDB biologist. "The Tejon's proposed 28,500-acre Tejon Mountain Village [development] will devastate the heart of the condor's critical habitat."

From other information I saw earlier posts from Mathews and others, they are going to limit Tejon to a 100,000 acre game preserve.
If you stop by their office they are not shy about telling you about their construction plans.
Based on that I put my check book away and chose not to buy the diamond membership.
They are going to be building a City (literally) which will fillup with anti's and hunting will be banned eventually at Tejon.

They will make Hundreds of Millions and every hunter that supports them is helping them with their plans IMO.

http://www.tejonranch.com/plandev/planned_development.asp

IF THEY HAD ANY CONCERN FOR STEWARDSHIP THEY WOULD PLANT HUNDREDS OF ACRES OF CORN FOR ETHENOL NOT MORE HOMES INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES MALLS AND URBAN SPRAWL.

 

[Rancho Loco]

 

[Zbearclaw]

I love Tejon as much as anyone, but one fo the rights of ownership of land is to do what the hell you please with it, under the law of the land. I will probably cry like a baby if it goes thru, however anyone that disagrees with it is more than welcome to make the ranch an offer to purchase the entire tract.

I remember many planning and zoning meetings where people living on one acre tracts were fighting a neighboring tract being zoned the same, or two acres.

Anyone that doesn't live on subdivided land please speak up.

 

[billrob]

Yea guess your right we don't have enough urban sprawl and we're way over abundant in open hunting lands. Especially Northern La and Lower Kern Counties area.

I'm all for the rights of the land owner just don't be a phoney about it with bogus public relations stunts to appease the enviros like getting the lead out and about stewardship when your planning to rape it and turn it into just another urban center.

I hope it pushes a good chunk of the wildlife onto the National Forest areas

 

[Zbearclaw]

That's just PR spin, no different than any other similar situation.

I agree it sucks that the writing is on the wall for that beautiful place, however every ranch will eventually become a subdivision unless we stop making new people, then we have to stop the people that are here to stop buying their own piece of paradise.

Hell if I won twenty million bucks tomorrow I would but 19.99999 mil in land and tell the world to piss off, same as most folks.

I do know that those poor people buying those homes will have problems with pigs in their lawns if I am not there to help until they tell us to stop, and I know how expensive a new lawn is so I will do my part to help them with the pig problem.

 

[Speckmisser]

Check the thread in the Campfire...Tejon Caves. I've put more there and don't care to keep repeating myself.

But in a nutshell...

Tejon Ranch is a huge corporation. They're not in business to cater to hunters. We're a convenient way to make money on the land that they can't do anything else with due to environmental restrictions and public relations. If you were ever under any other illusion, then it looks like maybe this is the smack of reality.

Stewardship of the land is a handy PR term, but it really means nothing...especially from the corporate viewpoint. As soon as it costs more to offer a product (hunting) than the corporation stands to make from it, then that product is taken off the shelf and replaced with something that does make money (development). Given a choice between the two, there's no question which way the corporation will go. Doesn't matter if it's WalMart or Tejon Ranch. It's the same thing.

Your call for a boycott is irrelevant and misplaced. Of course it's a personal choice, and you should do what feels right to you, but choosing to remove your support of their hunting program has exactly the opposite effect that you think. Your $5K for the Diamond Membership is barely a drop in the bucket vs. the millions they will harvest from the development of Bear Trap Canyon and the land around the lake. Even so, you are one less hunting customer they will have to reference when the big decisions are made about the future of hunting on the ranch.

The folks who run the hunting program there aren't always in accord with the folks who run the company. Most of them really would like to be "stewards of the land", and would like to see a strong hunting and conservation program in place. Most of them feel exactly as you do about the condors...that they're doomed to extinction and the artificial effort to keep them alive is a waste of time, science, and money.

But they don't run the company. A corporation exists to enrich the shareholders. Nothing more.

 

[billrob]

Good Point Bear,

I get all lworked up because I've seen so much disappear just in my life time. when my father passed away in 98 I went back to Pa to bury him and while there I took a nostalgia tour to find my old camping hunting , plinking and fishing spot outside the city limits turned into an overcrowded subdivision, a mall, a landfill right next to the creek and the creek bed with garbage an abandoned car, complete with shopping cart laying in the creek.
Thats happening all over the Country and has advanced more raidly for the last couple of decades.
Making new people is ok but importing hords isn't.
I hope you do win, but save enough to last your lifetime in property taxes so you don't have to work.
Maybe theres a new industry for that area as pig exterminators.
Good hunting.

 

[Zbearclaw]

My viewpoint on development changed once I got to see the innards of it, I worked as the employee for a few investors doing development, and did everything from acquisition thru dealing with the municipalities where the land was located, I got to see many farmers that could no longer make money on their land farming go thru the internal struggles it takes to sale the only thing they really knew, just so their kids and gandkids could have a better life than they were given to start with. They then had to go thru the ridicule of their neighbors and those that thought development the problem, most who were living on smaller tracts.

I made good money for the short time I was working the development industry, and enjoyed the work, but myself and those that made the real money, my investors, all would go to something else if folks stopped buying the land that we were developing, however it was something we could not stop, so what are you to do, i fell into that job by luck and a smile, literally, and feel blessed to have learned what I did while I was there.

Speck I read much of your writings on the Campfire writeup, and agree with it all.

If I could be king of the world for a day or two I would outlaw procreation by anyone that isn't a steward of the land and export those that already existed to the middle east, but I have yet to get the call to that office so until then.........

 

[dirtpoor]

I agree that Tejon can do whatever it want's with the ranch, nor do I fault them it's all about the money and that holds true for the majority of us. The condor is another issue, extinction is a normal occurence and we as humans will probably join that process someday, our roads/schools and inner cities are a shambles yet we dribble away millions of $$ on a species that has outlived its usefullness in todays society, that may seem harsh but I believe its realistic . When the grizzly bears became extinct in Ca they were replaced by black bears,same for wolves being replaced by coyotes it's natures natural order considering our burgeoning growth. Nature will adjust as nessesary but we keep trying to circumvent the inevitable. I pray that they don't discover or clone a T-rex if they do we're all screwed when they try to reestablish it in its old habitat (downtown LA) , but on second thought that might be a good thing !

 

[Zbearclaw]

Most seem to agree that extinction is natural, not much more natural than something coming to an end, and i for one def don't believe we need to spend millions saving a critter that can't be saved, why polish the brass on the titanic.

I also agree with speck that lead is some bad stuff, and that other substances are available, so why not use it, it may only be PR for the ranch to make the no lead change but it is something that is bad for but humans and critters, and should be changed.

The biggest concern I see is that of rimfire, I have never heard of anything but lead ammo for rimfires, and changing that would def make the rimfire near as expensive as other centerfires, but I would bet that there are solutions to that, just hadn't needed it till now.