Condors vs. the NRA

Biologists now routinely provide the carcasses of stillborn calves to the condors so that they won't risk consuming lead by chowing on the remains of dead game, an approach one scientist cheekily dubs a "condor welfare program." More than half of the "wild" condors' food comes from such deliberate human handouts. "We're essentially creating zoo animals in the wild that show up at feeding stations. It's affecting their feeding behavior, and it prevents them from acting like wild birds," says Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Without addressing the lead problem, it's clear we're not going to be able to recover condors."

In the early '90s, the federal government outlawed the use of lead birdshot for hunting waterfowl, which hunters objected to at the time. "They screamed it was going to end waterfowl hunting and be a huge crisis for duck hunters," says Donald Smith, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. But replacing lead with steel or tungsten birdshot hasn't ruined duck hunting. "I think that sportsmen have embraced it," says Smith, who was one of 45 scientists who signed a "statement of scientific agreement" in July 2007, which concluded that lead ammunition should be banned in condor country. "The hunters who are truly conservationists will embrace these changes."

Some already have. Anthony Prieto, a member of the National Rifle Association, who hunts blacktailed deer and wild pigs with his 17-year-old son, has volunteered with the federal condor recovery program, and launched Project Gutpile to help educate hunters about the lead threat to the birds. Prieto has been using nonlead bullets for 10 years.

Yet some hunters complain that copper bullets, a typical substitute, are more expensive and don't work well in some guns. Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, says that hunters should be offered a choice when hunting in the condors' range: Use nonlead ammunition or use lead and bury their gut piles to reduce the threat. Referring to the current California bill, he says, "The proposals that are being shoved down the hunting community's throats are heavy-handed. They dictate to them how they are going to hunt." Yet his overriding objection to the condor legislation is this: "As in gun control, we believe the ultimate goal is to ban hunting." Prieto calls that "B.S. Nobody is trying to take hunting privileges away."

The state of Arizona has tried to work with hunters to get them to voluntarily switch to nonlead ammunition or bury their gut piles to protect the condors, even going so far as to hand out hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of coupons for free nonlead ammunition. While many hunters have tried the nonlead ammo, and even liked it, the voluntary approach hasn't gone far enough. "Even in Arizona, we're still seeing the same amount of lead toxicity and deaths," says Sorenson from the Ventana Wildlife Society.

Advocates for the condors in California hope that regulation can achieve what voluntary efforts have not. The Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, which has passed the California Senate and Assembly, now awaits Schwarzenegger's signature or veto. (He will make up his mind by Oct. 22.) It would require that hunters use nonlead ammunition to shoot wild pigs, blacktailed deer or coyotes within the condors' range. California's Fish and Game Commission, which oversees hunting regulations, is also considering new rules that would restrict the use of leaded ammunition. The commission plans to vote on the issue by the end of the year.

But the condor cause suffered a blow on Sept. 13, when Schwarzenegger fired a state Fish and Game commissioner, Judd Hanna, a Republican, Vietnam vet and hunter. At a meeting of the commission in late August, Hanna had voiced support for banning lead ammunition in the condor range. On Sept. 10, Republican state senators and assembly members, who had been lobbied by the NRA, petitioned the governor to oust Hanna. A letter to the governor, signed by 34 Republicans, argued that Hanna had "become an outspoken advocate seeking to achieve his own personal objections by influencing the Commission's actions." The letter also complained about the lack of geographic diversity among commissioners, given that none of its members are from Southern California. The governor's office maintained that Schwarzenegger fired Hanna to improve the group's geographic diversity.

Following his ouster, Hanna sent an e-mail to his supporters. "The mission of the Commission has been deflected by a special interest group," he wrote. "Thus, an issue bearing on one of the Commission's most important mandates, protecting endangered species, has been hijacked."

The commissioner's forced resignation sparked outrage among condor conservationists, and dimmed hopes that the governor will sign the bill protecting the birds. "I think it's shameful that they made Judd Hanna resign from the commission," says Bob Risebrough, an ecologist for 30 years at the University of California. "It was just an effort to get his vote out of the way, which I thought was really crude."

As the political shenanigans play out, Peter Bloom, a biologist who captured free-flying condors in California for the breeding program in the '80s, takes the long view and remains upbeat. "Lead was first diagnosed as a problem in waterfowl in the late 1800s," he says. "It took over 100 years before lead pellets in the ammunition of duck hunters would be legislated against. I am hopeful. This has to happen."

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