Six weeks ago, just a day before Donald Trump was sworn into office, the Obama administration ordered a five-year phase-out of the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on wildlife reserves and public lands where hunting and fishing are allowed. It was a prohibition long sought by environmental advocates and opposed by hunting and fishing groups, although not by all their members. On Thursday, the day after he was sworn into office as the 52nd secretary of the Department of Interior, Ryan Zinke overturned that phase-out as his first bit of business—an omen of things to come.
Studies estimate that ingested lead from shotgun pellets and bullet fragments hunters leave behind in the environment kill from 10 million to 20 million animals each year. Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental organizations strongly behind the ammo phase-out, said:
“Switching to nontoxic ammunition should be a no-brainer to save the lives of thousands birds and other wildlife, prevent hunters and their families from being exposed to toxic lead, and protect our water. It’s ironic that one of the first actions by Secretary Zinke, who fancies himself a champion of hunters and anglers, leads to poisoning of game and waterfowl eaten by those same hunting families. It's another sad day for public health and wildlife under the Trump presidency when special interests again prevail over common-sense environmental safeguards.”
The CBD says that spent lead ammunition causes poisoning in 130 species of birds and other animals. It cites more than 500 scientific studies documenting the dangers of such lead exposure. And it notes that Zinke is no friend of wildlife, having voted as Montana’s only congressman against endangered species protections every time they came up.
But there was joy over Zinke’s action in some quarters. Timothy Cama reports:
“This [phase-out] was a reckless, unilateral overreach that would have devastated the sportsmen's community,” Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement, thanking Zinke.
“The Obama administration failed to consult with state fish and wildlife agencies or national angling and hunting organizations in issuing this order. This was not a decision based on sound scientific evidence — it was a last second attack on traditional ammunition and our hunting heritage.”
Dan Ashe, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who issued the five-year phase-out, sees things a lot differently:
"Exposure to lead ammunition and fishing tackle has resulted in harmful effects to fish and wildlife species," he wrote. "According to the U.S. Geological Survey, lead poisoning is a toxicosis caused by the absorption of hazardous levels of lead in body tissues.
"Ingested lead pellets from shotgun shells have been a common source of lead poisoning in birds. The service recognized the problem of avian exposure to lead shot used for waterfowl hunting and enacted restrictions in 1991 and hunting and waterfowl populations have thrived since."
Substitutes for lead ammunition are widely available. One of the complaints lodged against the phase-out is that such ammo is more costly than lead. But ammunition is one of the least expensive aspects of hunting. The alternatives to lead ammo are mostly made of composite materials—metals such as tin and copper, or plastics combined with metals such as tungsten and copper. Performance of these alternatives has been shown to be comparable to or better than lead ammunition.