Overview
Alaska
Montana
New York
Wyoming
Lead-free Ammunition Distribution Programs
Lead (Pb) is a heavy metal that is not naturally available to wildlife. It is a neurotoxin and metabolic poison and when ingested or inhaled and can negatively affect animals in multiple ways.
One of the ways animals, including golden eagles and other scavenging wildlife, ingest lead is through feeding on the remains of animals that have been shot with lead ammunition.
To study if the use of lead-free ammunition reduces eagle deaths, CSG has launched a new program called Hunters for Eagle Conservation to provide hunters in participating states with free or reduced-cost lead-free ammunition.
CSG contributed to this short, informative video about the unintended effects of lead ammunition in deer hunting. It’s worth sharing with a hunter you know!
Alaska
It has come to light through extensive study that lead ammunition unintentionally left in gut piles by hunters is a source of lead poisoning for scavengers and other wildlife, especially eagles.
Hunters can reduce the occurrence of lead poisoning of wildlife by using non-lead ammunition. Through the Alaska Copper Ammo Challenge, we are offering Alaskan hunters a rebate of up to $80 off two boxes of copper rifle ammunition. Rebates are limited so act fast to get yours!
Visit AKCopperChallenge.com for more info and to get your rebate.
Eagle Nest Monitoring and Lead-Free Ammunition Voucher Program in Park and Sweet Grass Counties, Montana
Background
To serve the community and protect the ecosystem of Park and Sweet Grass counties, we will develop a collaborative framework to reduce the prevalence of toxic lead fragments in big game offal left by successful big game hunters. This will provide a healthier foraging environment for eagles and other wildlife, while maintaining the robust big game hunting activities known to this region of the state. We aim to showcase bald and golden eagles as an iconic emblem of this unique, intact landscape by initiating a monitoring program of eagle activity (nesting and foraging) at AMB West’s Paradise Valley ranches. Additionally, we aim to improve wildlife habitat quality in the region by reducing lead on the landscape through development and implementation of a non-lead ammunition voucher program. The voucher program will encourage and jumpstart a long-term transition away from lead ammunition to lead-free alternatives by hunters throughout Park and Sweet Grass counties.
We will be building a website specifically for the distribution vouchers for discounted lead-free ammunition for licensed big game hunters in Park and Sweet Grass Counties, Montana. Please check back soon for more details on this program.
Research Methods
- Lead-free ammunition voucher program, including education and outreach to the local communities.
- Banding; feather and blood sampling of Bald and Golden Eagle nestlings on AMB West Paradise Valley properties.
For more information and to request a voucher, visit HuntersForEagleConservation.org/Montana.
Funding
AMB West Philanthropies of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
The American Eagle Foundation
New York
Bald and golden eagles face many risks including collision with wind turbines, electrocution, vehicle collision and lead poisoning. Minimizing the number of eagle deaths caused by any one source is essential to maintain eagle populations in New York.
Hunters had an opportunity to participate in eagle management and assist with wildlife research. Through our 2023 New York Hunters for Eagle Conservation program, we issued rebates for 1 box of factory loaded lead-free ammunition or 1 box of lead-free bullets for reloading (up to $60) to eligible hunters.
For more information and to request a rebate, visit
HuntersForEagleConservation.org/New-York
Wyoming
Background
Wind energy development has increased substantially in recent years and multiple additional facilities are currently in the pre-development phase. One species that is at risk of being negatively impacted by increased wind energy production is the golden eagle. The placement of wind turbines often overlap with golden eagle habitat resulting in mortalities by direct collision. In response to this problem, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) instituted a policy of “no net loss” for this species.
If the number of golden eagles that die as a direct result of wind development are greater than zero, mitigation methods must be implemented to reduce eagle deaths as compensation. The only currently accepted and broadly used mitigation technique is retrofitting power poles. Both the USFWS and the wind industry have expressed the need to increase the number of acceptable mitigation methods. Lead poisoning is a significant source of golden eagle mortality and the primary cause is thought to be the ingestion of bullets fragments in the offal of harvested game animals.
We recently received funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to test the efficacy of using a non-lead ammunition distribution program as an effective and quantifiable mitigation technique.
Specific Objectives
- Implement a lead-free ammunition distribution program in areas with high risk of lead toxicity and high use by golden eagles
- Quantify harvest with non-lead ammunition in the study area
- Estimate the reduction of golden eagle deaths in the study area
Research Methods
Use of nonlead ammo as mitigation for golden eagle deaths
We are distributing lead-free ammunition to hunters in southeast Wyoming. We are then quantifying the number of game animals harvested with lead-free ammunition and finally, estimating the reduction in golden eagle moralities. At project completion, we will be able to quantify costs to save eagles and provide the USFWS with a scientifically defensible framework to offset golden eagle moralities using lead-free ammunition.
Our 2022 ammunition distribution program is complete. Please check back for future programs. Thank you to all that have participated!
Visit HuntersForEagleConservation.org for further updates.
Visit HuntersForEagleConservation.org for further updates.
Conservation Science Global, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 2016 to advance conservation and management of our natural resources through science and education.
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