Fellow IOU members and listserve users. Below is an email that was forwarded to me from a staff member at Dorothy Pecaut Nature center. Original message was from our own Kay Neumann. Kay writes a very convincing documents.
Generally, I try to not cause too many ripples in the pond but I am going to promote active support by our membership are regards the use of only NON-toxic shot for all hunting activities. As a side, but similar, issue the same should apply to use of lead for fishing etc. Membership is constantly asking that we become more active in conservation issues. This is certainly one of those issues. It has nothing to do with pro or anti hunting or fishing etc. The only important issue here is preservation of our water, waterfowl, animals, and land. It goes without saying that this issue has created and will create issues of humans as well. We cannot completely undo the past but certainly we need to take a proactive stand on our resources. Please contact the Iowa legislative Representatives and Senators. They can be found in the document Kay wrote. I also have them on an excel spread sheet if you desire to have them (all of them). If interested please contact me offline as attachments are not allowed on the listserve. Stand up and make the IOU a visible and positive entity as regards preservation of our wonderful Iowa natural resources. Be informed, positive, gentle, but firm when visiting with people and with our state legislative people. God Bless, Paul Roisen Sioux City, IA Woodbury County 712-276-0371(H) 712-301-2817(C) Please contact your Iowa legislators and ask them to protect your investment in natural resources by voting NO on House Joint Resolution 2001 (HJR 2001) or Senate Joint Resolution 2001 (SJR 2001). Voting No will keep the non toxic shot requirement for dove hunting in place. Find your legislators at: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/Legislators/LegislatorInfo.aspx In 2011, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Natural Resource Commission voted unanimously to require non toxic shot for dove hunting statewide. The Legislatures Administrative Rules Review Committee put a hold on this requirement, citing the lack of time for public comment on the topic. So Iowas dove season moved forward with no provision for reducing the amount of lead deposited into the environment or preventing wildlife lead poisoning deaths. A resolution is moving through the legislature now to permanently nullify the non toxic shot requirement for dove hunting in Iowa. Wildlife watchers, tax payers (remember county conservation boards and the soil conservation programs), and hunters fund much of the habitat acquisition, management, and maintenance done in the state of Iowa. It only makes sense to protect this investment of millions of dollars annually, by making sure that this valuable habitat is free of toxins and can produce as many animals as possible. Science The National Wildlife Health Center has done research showing that when lead shot is used for dove hunting, as many doves die from ingesting lead shot and lead poisoning as are harvested (3% of the population). Approximately, 17 million doves are harvested annually nationwide. An estimated 300,000 are harvested in Iowa. Allowing another 300,000 doves to die from lead poisoning is simply a waste of an important economic resource A literature search finds that more than 100 species of birds have been documented to have been weakened or killed by ingesting lead shot. Twelve of these are on Iowas lists of Special Concern and Species of Greatest Conservation Need. The impacts of lead shot on wildlife include decreased survival, poor body condition, behavioral changes, and impaired reproduction. Doves are typically hunted over food plots. This concentrates shot in areas where doves, pheasants, quail, turkeys, and songbirds will be feeding, making them especially vulnerable to ingesting lead shot and being poisoned. Impacts of lead shot ingestion on doves and pheasants are considered by some scientists to rival the historic problem in waterfowl. A sick or wounded dove would be an easy meal for many species of raptors (e.g. Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, Coopers Hawks, Northern Harriers, etc.), causing secondary lead poisoning. Please see http://www.soarraptors.org/HuntLeadFree.html for scientific references. Hunters have the most to gain from preventing poisoning deaths in the species that they are harvesting. It could only be positive to have more doves around to harvest and to watch at your feeder. Hunter numbers appear to be most related to their perception of success. With the prediction of low pheasant numbers, fewer pheasant hunters were in the field in Iowathis year. Non toxic shot has been required for waterfowl hunting for the last twenty years. This requirement has not impacted the number of duck hunters, nor have any law abiding duck hunters had their guns taken away. Research shows that millions of ducks have been saved from dying of lead poisoning, as a result of this simple non toxic shot requirement. This is considered cost effective conservation, as it would be a huge dollar investment in habitat to produce a million ducks. Waiting for measurable population declines in any species before taking positive action is not sound conservation. Im sure that the foresters in Iowawould agree that the time to do something about emerald ash borers is BEFORE there is a decline in ash trees in the state. It would be much too late to have waited for that population decline and then to take action to limit firewood relocation, etc. It would be much too late to wait for invasive zebra mussels to spread across the state and cause declines in native aquatic species and then make rules and do education about how boaters can prevent their spread. The Iowa DNRs Wildlife Action Plan is a proactive plan designed to conserve all wildlife in Iowabefore they become rare and more costly to protect. That is good conservation. In pre-settlement times, a half a million bald eagles lived in what is now the lower 48 states. We now have about 10% of that number. Bald eagles spent 30 years on the endangered species list, millions were spent to bring them back from the brink of extinction. They are now an Iowa Species of Special Concern and Species of Greatest Conservation Need. Eagles are dying from ingesting lead shot and lead bullet and slug fragments as they scavenge from animal carcasses. It is only sound conservation to take positive action to prevent these deaths. Public Relations The fact that wildlife would benefit by requiring non toxic shot for dove hunting is supported by sound science. This issue also has a very real public relations component. In the Be a Responsible and Ethical Hunter section, The Hunter Education manual states: Nationally, about five percent of the population hunts, and roughly the same percentage actively opposes hunting. The rest of the population is predominantly neutral. However, bad behavior by hunters could sway some of the neutral crowd into the anti-hunting camp. As I have discussed this issue with many people, it has become clear that the main opposition to switching to non toxic ammunition is coming from the gun rights groups. These groups cannot present any data that shows that non toxic ammunition requirements for hunting limit gun ownership in any way or prevent people from hunting. I do not believe that these groups are interested in wildlife or conservation. I have been around hunting all of my life. My first pheasant hunting experience was walking through the corn in southern Minnesotawhile my dad and cousin waited at the other end. Being only about nine, I didnt realize until much later that I had been used as their hunting dog that day. I still remember those days in the field as fun, fun, fun. I have been hunting in the state of Iowasince I moved here in 1984. Yet, because I would prefer not to see eagles and other wildlife die completely preventable deaths, I have been called an anti-hunter, a liar, and worse. Its never a good idea to treat someone who is your friend, as though they were an enemy. The lead issue is neither an anti-hunting nor gun limiting issue. The more the gun rights groups try to make it one, the more they will alienate true hunters and conservationists. At only five percent of the population, hunters need to unite to do the right thing for wildlife and to protect our image. Lead poisoning is a primary cause of death for bald eagles, as documented by wildlife rehabilitators from across the country. We do not have enough nesting data to know what long term impact this unnatural mortality will have on eagle populations, especially considering the sub lethal effects of lead on reproduction. Populations are made up of individuals. Six eagles died of lead poisoning from the northeast Iowaarea this November and December. Millions of people from around the world watched the Decorah eagle nest cam, as eaglets hatched, grew, and fledged. What if one of the six dead, were one of this pair? One does matter. This is a public relations issue. How would Iowabe viewed? Help Iowabe a leader in conservation and keep toxic lead out of dove hunting. Ø Please contact your legislators on this issue, help them make an informed decision and vote NO on the upcoming resolution. Ø Please attend and invite your legislator to attend an Ice Cream Social at the Capitol in Des Moineson TUESDAY, January 17, 2012from 2 pmto 4 pm.This informative event is sponsored by the Lead Is Poison Coalition. Ø Check out the new Lead is Poison Coalition web page www.leadispoison.com and face book page to keep updated on the lead issue. Thank you to the many people and organizations that have worked to get good information on this wildlife and human health issue to hunters, the public, and the people that make our laws. Kay Neumann Dedham, IA --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. 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