Lead Banned On Federal Lands By Outgoing USFWS Director
Lead ban includes traditional ammo and fishing sinkers
In his final act as director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dan Ashe banned lead ammunition and fishing sinkers on most federal lands. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), condemned Ashe’s decision, Director’s Order 219. It came on the final full day of President Obama’s administration.
The last-minute action revives an effort the administration undertook eight years ago to ban the use of traditional ammunition. “This directive is irresponsible and driven not out of sound science but unchecked politics,” said Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “The timing alone is suspect. This directive was published without dialogue with industry, sportsmen and conservationists. The next director should immediately rescind this, and instead create policy based upon scientific evidence of population impacts with regard to the use of traditional ammunition.”
The order requires several initiatives to go into effect immediately. Regional Directors are to work with state agencies to ban the use of traditional ammunition. It also ends the use of traditional ammunition on Federal land, including National Parks, tribal lands and national wildlife refuges.
The order “expeditiously” bans traditional ammunition “when available information indicates” that lead is harmful to wildlife, without requirement of a scientific threshold on which to base that action. It also requires creation of a timeline to restrict traditional ammunition for dove and upland bird hunting. You can learn more detail in Jim Shepherd’s Outdoor Wire blog.
Dan Ashe photo courtesy USFWS.
