The phony "Sportsmen's Heritage Act HR 4089" would open rare wilderness areas to motors and mining, bar the EPA from banning lead in hunting ammunition, open national parks to hunting, and allow the import of polar bear trophies, an endangered species.
Make no mistake, this is a ridiculous bill disguised as "good for sportsmen," when of course that couldn't be further from the truth.
The bill passed the House, and is up for debate in the Senate.
First, let me show you what lead ammunition does to birds, specifically the national symbol. This was a bald eagle that ingested a deer that was shot by a hunter who used lead bullets. In the meat was a splintered bullet, and of course, lead fragments:
Every year, hunters release 3,000 tons of toxic lead into the environment, killing 20 million birds in the process. Lead poisoning is widely known to man as one of the worst death's imaginable. Lead poisoning kills rare condors, eagles, and numerous other raptors and waterfowl.
There are numerous alternatives to lead ammunition,such as copper, which is readily available although slightly more expensive.
And that's just the start of this heinous bill. You can find out more about the issues with lead ammunition in HR 4089 here:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/...
Another portion of this nasty bill opens federally protected wilderness areas to motors, mining, and logging. How does this help sportsmen? It doesn't. Anyone who's ever hunted or fished knows that wilderness areas are essential for top habitat.
You often see extractive industries using misinformed sportsmen as pawns, which is how you can explain many sportsmen voting against their own interests (like blue collar workers voting against unions, etc).
You can read more on this here:
http://wilderness.org/...
and here:
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/...
Perhaps one of the most bizarre "features" of the bill is the ability to import dead polar bears from Canada to be mounted as trophies. how in the hell does this help sportsmen? I would think that this sort of thing would only damage recruitment for the activity in our modern society. Make no mistake, hunters numbers are plummeting yearly and there's no sign of recovery. You can read more about this bizarre aspect of the bill here:
http://hsus.typepad.com/...
Last but not least is the plan to open all national parks to hunting. Could you imagine taking your kids to Yellowstone, enjoying Old Faithful when shots ring out and a injured, stampeding bison runs amok in a nearby meadow? That's just one of many possibilities in this insane portion of the bill. You can read more about it here:
http://my.npca.org/...
As a fishermen and outdoor-lover, I urge everyone to contact the senate and defeat this idiotic, dishonest bill. This is one of the biggest attacks on our public lands and wildlife that I've seen in quite some time.
Contact your senators:
http://www.senate.gov/