From the nssfblog.com:
A local TV station in Iowa just released the results of its so-called “investigation” into the impact of traditional ammunition made with lead components on bald eagles. This investigation appears to have consisted of speaking with the head of a “wildlife rehabilitation group” in western Iowa and a wildlife refuge manager.
As we have noted here before, examining sick eagles is a good way to find sick eagles, but does not demonstrate anything about the overall well-being of the eagle population. A study out of Iowa State University, for example, acknowledged the inherent flaws in studies of lead exposure in eagles that analyze only dead eagles or eagles treated in raptor rehabilitation centers, as test subjects, then extrapolate out to the entire population. The author instead tested fecal samples from nest areas for lead levels and, in the majority of samples, the levels were low and within the range of birds in lead-free sites, and within background environmental lead levels.
The Iowa study also found that the lead levels of eagles in rehabilitation facilities were significantly higher than in free-flying eagles. Overall the study found, “that the majority of free-flying nesting and wintering Bald Eagles in Iowa experience low levels of lead exposure and that lead levels in rehabilitation Bald Eagles are not representative of lead exposure levels in free-flying Bald Eagles, but rather representative of a small subset of the population.”
Even the TV station’s finding that over the past decade about half of the sick eagles tested by this facility were found to have “some level” of lead poisoning is far from compelling. Assuming what they describe as “some level” exceeds background environmental lead levels and reaches into dangerous thresholds, there is no evidence the lead is due to ingestion of traditional ammunition, which as a metallic source of lead is not bioaccessible as is industrial lead in paint chips or leaded pesticides.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in this “investigation” is that the authors failed to note the soaring eagle populations over recent years. The removal of bald eagles from the federal Endangered Species list in 2007 alone indicates a dramatic comeback in the population, even as hunters are taking to the field in record numbers.
Before releasing further thinly supported “investigations,” we urge TV-6 and others to take a look at the whole picture: healthy, growing eagle populations, and American’s successful system of hunter-funded wildlife conservation.
I’m sure Iowa has plenty of wind mills for power generation that is more detrimental to the raptor population than from lead. No penalties to operators for deaths up to 4200 per year (I believe this is for raptors alone),,, and lead poisoning? Gotta love that clean renewable energy.
“Gotta love that clean renewable energy”. Not really. (I know you were being sarcastic.) Windmills kill untold thousands of birds annually along with bats; bats are necessary for insect control. And solar farms? Birds can be seen bursting into flames flying over them, I think they are even called ‘flamers’ by the solar farm operators. But if it’s a hopey dopey ‘change’ for the ‘better’……………..
You better believe it. The damn things are everywhere.
Iowa is one of the “leaders” in the production of expensive unreliable interruptible electricity for you IPAD and Prius. It’s all the libtard hot air coming down from Minnysoda.
I just want to know how badly these “green” wind farms are destroying our weather. You can’t literally take energy out of the air (wind) and expect the weather not to change. Newton had a rule about this. Something about “can’t be created or destroyed, only transferred.”
…and I’m sure they convert that energy at 100% efficiency…
Great example of how a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Yes, the turbines are extracting all the energy out of the air, so yes, it is having SOME impact on the weather/atmosphere. However that impact is SO INSIGNIFICANT its literally impossible to even quantify in any meaningful way. Maybe a good analogy would be you driving your car down the interstate. If you collide with an object, that collision is going to remove energy ffrom the “system” the consists of your car. So when you nail a dragonfly, your car was just slowed down by that collision. It has “affected” the velocity of your vehicle, but not to any significant measureable magnitude. The amount of energy even a few hundred acres of wind turbines removes from a weather system is completely insignificant relative to the total energy of the system. As an example, a single category 1 hurricane expends approximate 200 times the total electrical production capability of THE ENTIRE WORLD every day its in existence. You can imagine then that even a light summer breeze over the plans carries a HUGE amount of energy, and pulling a few kW or MW out of that will do nothing to effect the total.
Lead poisoning through ammo is most definitely real. It is a risk to both hunter and shooter. It is a problem that is brushed under the rug by manufacturers afraid any price increase would result in less shooting.
In short, “no” getting rid of lead ammo wouldn’t mean a loss of our ability to shoot…it would result in a reduction of lead poisoning in people and animals.
Why people fight it tooth and nail…parroting the lines from industry is beyond me. I will only use lead free ammo…and yeah, I pay about 50 cents a round for target practice. It would be 3x that for self-defense rounds. Expensive, but hardly the end of the world.
If you’ve seen what lead poisoning can do to people/animals, I doubt you’d be so dismissive.
And don’t forget…after you shoot at the range, you are tracking that stuff home to your family.
We aka hunters preserve more land each year than any other group of people. If I want to mace an eagle with deet every now and then I’m God damn well gonna do it
So the news is telling a story but nit the whole story????? I’m stunned.
Surprised they didn’t just lie and say the hunters made them extinct will all the lead shot they hit them with.
Listen up folks, this is not about Raptors…its about infringement of 2A, limiting or changing ammo components. Despite evidence pointing to Condors eating lead paint from abandon buildings on a military bases, California band lead ammo in Condor areas.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/2/lead-ammunition-ban-passed-after-feds-withheld-key/
or http://www.huntfortruth.org/wildlife-and-species/california-condor/
“Hunt for Truth believes that the combination of: 1) the 2009, 2010, and 2011 blood lead data; 2) the passage of AB 821, and; 3) the Department of Fish and Game’s evidence of 98.89% hunter compliance with the lead ban, strongly indicate that hunters’ ammunition is not the cause of lead exposure and toxicity in condors and alternative sources of lead are to blame.”
Bend over America, grab your ankles be administered by the Anti Gunner pole.
In other news, it has been learned that almost all of the people admitted to hospitals suffer from some kind of illness or injury.
We still hear about vaccines causing autism and cell phones causing brain cancer. (It wouldn’t distress me if the latter were true.)
AND there is no shortage of Bald Eagles. At least in Iowa. The carrion are everywhere. Seldom is there a day I don’t see multiple scaveging roadkill, In the 70s a rare thing to see one.
Don’t start yapping about the commie bimbo Rachel Carson (the progtard press recently dusted of their manufactured “controversy” about her as it involves Steve Bannon which is why this stuff is popping up in the “news”) http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-carson-myth-20170206-story.html
The reality of life of the Bald Eagle is actually that of the white haired vulture not some noble majestic beast.
Somebody *REALLY* needs to examine the Bald Eagle population at Camp Perry during the past few decades, thousands of people firing hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, essentially *all* containing lead, pistol rounds, smallbore rounds, muzzle loaders, rifle fire, 5 weeks a year with thousands of people firing constantly. Meanwhile, one nesting pair grew to two, then 3, and then I stopped going, in 2007. Guns, ammo, lead pellets, noise, commotion, all BS. The pretty birds do not care at all, we are being LIED TO!!!
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