The pair of trumpeter swans that nested on a shallow glacial lake here in Roberts County, South Dakota, has returned. No one fishes or hunts in the shallow lake and the ponds nearby, so the birds should be safe from ingesting lead.
The Trumpeter Swan Society notes in Top Ten Threats to Trumpeter Swans:
Did you know a single split shot or lead sinker, or 3 lead pellets can kill a 30 pound swan over a two-three week period? Swans swallow lead fishing tackle or lead pellets in shallow waters where they feed, or lead pellets found in soil where shooting activities have occurred. . . .
How are lawmakers addressing this threat? I've posted about current legislation in the Minnesota House in Could environmental bill be swan song for lead sinkers in some Minnesota lakes?
A federal bill may discourage swan protection in South Dakota.
Down column in Seth Tupper's Congressional Roundup: Thune wants to rein in electric vehicle incentives at the South Dakota Searchlight, there's this item:
Lead ammunition
Rounds and Thune teamed with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, and 22 of their Senate Republican colleagues to introduce a bill that would stop several federal agencies from banning lead ammunition or tackle on public lands in some circumstances.
An exception in the text of the bill says bans could be imposed if field data show that lead ammunition or tackle led to a decline in the wildlife population on the land in question.
Rounds said in a news release that the bill “keeps the heavy hand of government from interfering with our way of life in South Dakota.” Some hunters prefer to use lead where it’s allowed, including on private land, saying it’s more effective for pheasants and other game.
Yet South Dakota already requires nontoxic ammunition, such as steel, when hunting some species on public land.
The bill is partly motivated by a successful lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity that forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin phasing out lead ammunition and tackle at several wildlife refuges. The center says lead can poison endangered animals like whooping cranes that ingest it when feeding in fields and waterways.
Rounds' news release is online at his webpage here.
Tupper links to Keeping the lead in: Efforts to thwart toxic ammo caught in political crosshairs, an article he reported for the Rapid City Journal in 2014.
Getting the lead out in Minnesota
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Statement on lead ammunition and tackle outlines the current status of their use in Minnesota.
But legislation to restrict the use of lead ammunition and tackle has been introduced, though its progress is uneven.
On February 24, Bob Timmons reported for the Star Tribune in Bill to ban small lead fishing tackle's sale and use in Minnesota pushed again:
In late January, state Rep. Peter Fischer, DFL-Maplewood, introduced a bill that would ban some small fishing tackle made with lead — similar to legislation he raised last session in concert with DFL Sen. Chuck Wiger's and stacked on that proposed by others in recent years citing lead's deadly effect on wildlife.
Fischer singles out the protection of loons, which can consume jigs and sinkers either in the fish they eat or the metal lost to the water bottoms where the deep-diving birds grab grit and pebbles to help digest their food.
The lawmaker said he expects his bill, HF944, like some others targeting wildlife protection this session, to get a hearing.
Fischer telegraphed disagreement over the economic impact and paying for enforcement of a limited lead tackle ban, but he said he's talked to stakeholders "who want to figure this out."
"They realize there are alternatives out there, things are moving in that direction and people are looking for it. How do we make it happen in a way that is workable and will stick for the future and not be undone by folks who say, we want to go back to lead because it's cheap?"
Findings in 2006 from a Department of Natural Resources-led study of five state walleye fisheries said lead poisoning from ingested fishing items "may be a growing problem." The DNR looked at Rainy Lake, Namakan Reservoir, Leech Lake, Lake Mille Lacs and Lake of the Woods in the summer of 2004. Researchers estimated almost 215,000 pieces of fishing tackle were lost, with more than 100,000 lead pieces that amounted to a metric ton. . . .
The bill wasn't included in the list of bills folded into the environmental omnibus bill.
But other language is in the omnibus environmental, natural resources and energy bill that's in coference committee.
At the end of March, the Chisago County Press reported in Ten years later; lead still a concern:
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Chisago County actively promoting the message to not use lead tackle. The county has been behind those collection tubes at boat landings and supports an exchange program to trade-in leaded fishing tackle, for equipment that does not contain lead. The county Household Hazardous Waste Facility in North Branch makes sure the lead items are disposed of properly.
This practice was embraced as policy in 2012 in order to reduce lead poisoning in fish and wildlife. Researchers reported that waterfowl and fish have lead accumulation in their bodies and bloodstreams.
As money came out of the BP gulf petroleum spill settlement, Chisago County kicked off its “Hook, Line and Sinker’ effort tapping into that fund. The collection effort and the exchange continue to this day only now it’s known as “Get the Lead Out”
Chisago County was selected in 2021 along with six other counties in Minnesota to continue to get outside financial aid.
County Water Resources staffer Monica Kinny says the county gathered 57 pounds of lead tackle in the last two years alone.
Citizens can trade leaded items for lead-free at the Government Center, or bring a leaded item should you come across a County Water Resources booth at a community celebration or the county fair.
A new piece of legislation working its way through the legislature has a good chance to become law. And, trumpeter and tundra swans in particular, will benefit. Funding earmarked at $1.4 million also could be available for efforts that reduce lead in the swans’ environment.
The bills HF 2368 and SF 2204 give the MN Commissioner of Natural Resources authority to designate swan (resting) protection areas and to prohibit possessing lead items in that area. The penalties for killing, buying or selling a swan could rise to a gross misdemeanor. Restitution also increases to $1,000 for a tundra swan and $2,500 for a trumpeter.
Kinney commented that it is “...encouraging people are talking about this (lead) especially at the state level.”
HF 2368 was heard and laid over for possible inclusion in an Omnibus bill later in the session. It has 14 State Representatives signed on as authors.
HF2368 is in the bill. That's the language reported in Session Daily's Could environmental bill be swan song for lead sinkers in some Minnesota lakes?
On March 29, the pro-lead Sportmen's Alliance sent up an alarm in Minnesota: Lead Ammo Ban Hearing Today! Your Help Needed. Reading beyond the headline, we learn the language bans "the use of traditional lead ammunition on wildlife management areas in the “farmland zone,” a massive area that comprises nearly half the state."
That's fairly deceptive wording, since while the farmland zone may be a "massive area" that's half the state, the public wildlife management areas don't include all that massive area.
The amendment was adopted by the House Environment & Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee as part of the omnibus bill, which was passed by the House.
Here's hoping the conference committee keeps the anti-lead language in the conference report--and the US Senate bill goes nowhere. While the state and federal bills relate to different acreage, Bluestem is always pleased to learn about getting the lead out.
Related posts:
- Twenty-one conservation groups petition DNR to ban lead tackle, ammunition in state parks, SNAs
- Research shows lead from hunters' ammunition is harming North American eagle population
- Getting the lead out permanently: watch girl scout speak up for trumpeter swans
- Getting the lead out: Minnesota House considering lead fishing tackle, ammunition bills
- MN swans died of lead poisoning, likely from anglers' sinkers; use nontoxic alternatives
- The unbearable burden of being Draz when a constituent emails about bald eagles & lead shot
- MN rep says lead is a-okay because it's natural; or, poisoning is life on Planet Josh Heintzeman (2017)
- Lead shot debate: bald eagles keep dying and here's what the MN House had to say about it (2017)
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