PHOENIX — Did you know that one of the best ways to help wildlife conservation over the coming year is to buy a 2012 Arizona hunting or fishing license?

Hunters and anglers have known the conservation benefits of buying a license for years. But it’s important for those who don’t hunt and fish to understand that buying a hunting or fishing license is actually one of the best ways to support wildlife conservation in the state.

The dollars provided by license sales help manage for sustainable fish and wildlife resources for future generations to enjoy. That includes not just hunters and anglers, but birders, hikers, photographers, wildlife watchers, and other wildlife enthusiasts. License dollars help fund habitat improvement projects or protection projects that benefit both hunted and non-hunted species. They also help fund game surveys, enforcement of wildlife laws, and public access and recreational opportunities for Arizonans.

Now is a great time to buy your 2012 license because it is good for the entire calendar year, so you can maximize your hunting and fishing enjoyment.

Remember—even if you don’t hunt or fish, you can help wildlife conservation efforts by buying a license.

Licenses can be purchased at any Game and Fish office, at more than 300 license dealers across the state, or online. For license costs and additional information, visit www.azgfd.gov/eservices/licenses.shtml.

Endangered condors celebrate

15th anniversary in Arizona

The endangered California condor population that now spans Arizona and Utah is celebrating a significant milestone this month: the 15th anniversary of the first release of the birds into Arizona after being gone from the area for nearly 100 years.

In December 1996, six condors were released from an acclimation pen atop the Vermilion Cliffs in northern Arizona. Today, the population consists of more than 70 birds that now also use Utah as part of their range.

“This milestone is a significant accomplishment for the reintroduction program and demonstrates what cooperative, adaptive conservation can do for wildlife,” says Eric Gardner, nongame branch chief for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “We would not have any condors flying over Arizona and Utah if it were not for the experimental, nonessential designation that allowed the project to begin. Now we have over 70 birds.”

Since reintroduction began, challenges have been identified in the program and adaptive management has been implemented to address issues like lead poisoning from spent ammunition and predation. Of 42 known mortalities, 19 birds have died from confirmed lead poisoning. The second leading cause of death is predation with 12 cases recorded.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department implemented a voluntary non-lead ammunition program in 2005 to hunters drawn for hunts in the condor’s core range. The free program has had voluntary participation rates of between 80 and 90 percent each of the past five years, demonstrating the willingness of hunters to play an active role in conservation and that voluntary programs can be successful.

To continue to address lead’s impact on condors, Utah implemented a non-lead program in 2010 to further conservation as the population of condors expands its habitat into southern Utah. Biologists expect to see a reduction in lead toxicity deaths once more Utah hunters begin to use non-lead ammunition in the field.

The Arizona-Utah condor population is classified as an experimental, non-essential population by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the 10(j) rule of the Endangered Species Act. This special rule provides The Peregrine Fund and Game and Fish with more flexibility to manage the population. The 10(j) rule allows the agencies the ability to handle, treat, transport and fit birds with radio transmitters, activities that would be much more difficult to carry out without the special designation. The 10(j) rule also provides that land management practices will not be restricted due to the presence of condors.

Condors are a long-lived species with low reproductive rates, making their population more slow-growing than most wildlife. While they can live up to 60 years in the wild, they do not sexually mature until six or seven years of age and only mate every other year.

The California condor has gone from only 22 birds left in the world in 1982 to nearly 400 today. The original 22 birds were captured in an effort to breed and save the species. Condors bred and raised in captivity are now periodically released at sites in California, Mexico and at the Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona.

The species was added to the federal endangered species list in 1967. The condor is the largest flying land bird in North America. The birds can weigh up to 26 pounds and have a wingspan of up to 9 1/2 feet.

The Arizona-Utah condor conservation effort is a joint project of many partners, including The Peregrine Fund, Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Kaibab National Forest, and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

For more information on condors and lead, visit www.azgfd.gov/condor.

]]> http://www.huntfortruth.org/site/2012/01/04/help-wildlife-conservation-buy-a-2012-arizona-hunting-or-fishing-license/feed/ 0 http://www.huntfortruth.org/site/2011/12/14/study-shows-elevated-lead-in-grizzly-bears/ http://www.huntfortruth.org/site/2011/12/14/study-shows-elevated-lead-in-grizzly-bears/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:42:12 +0000 hannahe http://www.huntfortruth.org/site/?p=2265 Original Publication: Jackson Hole News & Guide
Author: Cory Hatch

Grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone have elevated levels of lead in their blood, a new study shows.

Unlike previous studies in ravens and eagles, researchers could not link the high lead levels to bullet fragments in gut piles left behind by hunters.

Researchers from Craighead Beringia South and the University of Montana studied lead levels in 82 grizzly bear blood samples, 35 black bear samples, six mountain lion samples and 12 wolf samples. The blood was provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, Grand Teton National Park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Craighead Beringia South also contributed blood samples.

More than one sample might have come from the same animal, but the blood was collected at different times.

Researchers also looked for lead bullet fragments in coyote and bear scat. They fund none.

Grizzly bears showed the highest blood-lead levels, followed by black bears. Wolves and mountain lions showed very little blood contamination.

The findings appear in the latest issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management.

No surprise

That grizzly bears showed the highest lead levels comes as no surprise, researchers said.

“Grizzly bears are … more likely to be in areas with high human hunting pressure during years with lower abundance of alternative food sources such as whitebark pine seeds,” the authors wrote. “Wolves occasionally scavenge, but to a much lesser extent than bears, and cougars have been found to scavenge roughly 2 to 3 percent of feeding occurrences. Black bears … may avoid highly desirable food sources to avoid conflicts with grizzly bears.”

What did surprise researchers was that lead levels didn’t increase during hunting season. Instead, blood lead levels rose steadily from the time bears left their dens in the spring to the time bears entered their dens for the winter.

“We had a hypothesis that bears would have high lead levels in hunting season,” study co-author Bryan Bedrosian said. “But you’ve got to believe what the data are telling you and not what your preconceived notions might be.”

The study “raises more questions than it answers,” Bedrosian said. “We racked our brains trying to figure out where grizzly bears are getting [lead], and the jury is still out.”

Perhaps the steady increase in lead levels has something to do with hormone activity associated with hibernation, or perhaps grizzly bears eat enough different types of food, aside from gut piles, that the effect of lead in their diet is muted, Bedrosian said.

Researchers also attempted to associate the location of grizzly bears with tailings from abandoned mines, with no success.

More recent, unpublished data show that Yellowstone National Park grizzly bears had lower levels of lead contamination than bears outside the park, Bedrosian said.

“It does appear that there is some buffer against lead exposure in Yellowstone,” he said.

There is no hunting allowed in Yellowstone. Grand Teton National Park does conduct an elk reduction hunt most years.

In eagles and ravens around Jackson Hole, blood-lead levels rise roughly two weeks after the start of hunting season, then drop off two weeks after hunting season ends. Using radiographs, researchers have documented an average of 160 lead fragments in each gut pile.

Researchers estimate that hunters discard about 500 tons of bullet-penetrated meat in Greater Yellowstone each year. The lead levels found in some of the birds were high enough to be fatal, Bedrosian said.

The blood-lead concentrations in grizzly bears were high, but probably not high enough to pose a risk to the animals’ survival, Bedrosian said.

No link to bullets

“The lead levels are elevated, but they’re not at a level where they would cause the death of an individual,” Bedrosian said. “It’s probably not as big a concern for bear management as it is for eagle management.”

The study doesn’t confirm a link between the lead in bears’ blood and bullet fragments from gut piles, but it doesn’t rule out a link either, said Tom Rogers, the lead author of the study and a former graduate student at the University of Montana. A larger study might have different results, he said.

“Within the limits of the scope of our research, we didn’t find a link,” Rogers said. “But that doesn’t mean that there is no link.”

Regardless, lead poisoning from bullet fragments probably isn’t an issue in terms of the level of exposure or its prevalence in the population, Rogers said.

Bedrosian said the number of grizzly bear blood samples the research team was able to collect — 82 — represented an adequate sample size.

In further studies, researchers could make a concerted effort to collect more scat samples, Rogers said.

“Had we found ammo in the scat, we would have had conclusive evidence,” he said.

Rogers called the study a huge collaborative effort.

“It speaks to the quality of the researchers that we have here in the Yellowstone ecosystem,” he said. “Everyone was willing to lend a hand.”

Just because bears don’t have very high lead levels “doesn’t mean that lead ammunition isn’t a significant ecological threat,” Bedrosian said. “Eagles are still dying.”

A bear biologist from Grand Teton National Park declined to comment on the study because he hadn’t seen the results.

Researchers with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team did not immediately return calls for comment.

To read Cory Hatch’s original article published in the Jackson Hole News & Guide December 14, 2011, click here.

“There’s a long legacy of hunting in this great state,” said DFG Director Charlton H. Bonham. “At the department, we’re going to continue to seek ways to manage our resources for hunting and fishing as well as improve access and opportunity. But we need help in cultivating the next generation of sportsmen and sportswomen who will step in our shoes once we have gone. We thank those that already volunteer to teach our hunter education courses, and we’re looking to recruit even more.”

Click here to read the full article published in the California Department of Fish and Game News.

In cooperation with several hunting-oriented conservation organizations, DFG will offer 13 big game fund-raising license tags for eight mule or black-tailed deer, two desert bighorn sheep, one Grizzly Island tule elk, one multiple zone elk and one pronghorn antelope. Following a competitive bidding process, DFG proposes to award agreements for the auction or sale of the 13 tags to the following organizations: Wild Sheep Foundation (National and California Chapter), Safari Club International (Orange County and San Francisco Bay Area chapters), The Mule Deer Foundation (National, Central Coast, and Shasta-Lassen chapters), and the California Deer Association (North Valley, Chico, Redding, Salinas Valley, Gridley and Mount Saint Helena chapters).

Click here to read the news article published in the California Department of Fish and Game News.

Over Use of Lead Ammunition for Hunting in Arizona Strip

In a major legal victory, a federal judge today ruled in favor of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and threw a lawsuit filed by the environmental group, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) out of US District Court in Phoenix, Arizona.. Safari Club Interational had joined the case as a “friend of the court.” and assisted NRA with its successful efforts.

CBD’s lawsuit, filed on January 27, 2009, alleged that the BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) were illegally mismanaging federal lands in Arizona.  The lawsuit challenged the allowance of off road vehicles, construction of roads, inadequate protection of desert tortoises, and inadequate protection of California condors. Among other things, the suit sought to force BLM to ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting in the Arizona strip. CBD contended California condors in Arizona and elsewhere were being poisoned from scavenging game that was shot by hunters using lead shot or bullets. But the record plainly shows that California condors were reintroduced to this area of Arizona based in on express promises by FWS and other agencies that the “reintroduction” would not impact hunting.

Among other things, the Court ruled that CBD had waived its claims concerning BLM’s failure to assess the alleged impact of lead ammunition on condors because “[i]t did not argue that BLM was required to include the potential effects of lead ammunition in [BLM’s] analysis of environmental impacts.”

NRA’s intervention on behalf of its members in the case Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, et al., has already resulted in several legal victories.  A January 13, 2010 court ruling granting NRA’s motion intervene was recently published in the official Federal Rules Decision Reporter. The Federal Rules Decisions Reporter is a compendium of selected United States District Court rulings that specifically interpret and apply the Federal Rules of Civil and Criminal Procedure.  Publication of this court ruling is important to hunters and NRA members because it sets legal precedent and confirms that there is “significantly protectable interest” in hunting that can justify intervention by hunter’s rights groups like NRA in the increasing number of lawsuits filed by so-called environmental groups against state and federal natural resource, game and land management agencies.

Groups like CBD often file lawsuits alleging improper regulatory action or inaction in managing public lands and natural resources in attempting to advance their anti-hunting agenda. NRA has collected thousands of documents via public records act requests over the last two years on the lead ammunition issue.  Many of these documents raise doubts about the veracity of claims that lead ammunition is poisoning condors. In fact, many documents obtained by NRA indicate that claim is based on faulty science.

To see key documents filed in this case, visit http://michellawyers.com/cbdvblm.