Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Assemblymember Pan speaks about how a ban on lead ammunition will benefit the state of California. (©Pam Flick)

Kim Delfino, California Program Director

Yesterday, we took one more important step in the effort to protect wildlife and human health from the toxic effects of lead ammunition. The California Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee passed a bill, by a vote of 9-5, that would require the use of non-lead ammo for all hunting in the state, putting California well on its way to being the first state to enact non-lead ammunition requirements.

The committee vote came one day after the bill’s authors, Assemblymember Anthony Rendon and Assemblymember Richard Pan, stood on the steps of the State Capitol with a scientist, a hunter, a veterinarian and Tesla the golden eagle, to outline why it is critical for California to remove lead from ammunition used to hunt wildlife. “Lead is a toxicant that is bad for human health and the environment, and lead ammunition exposes humans and other animals to this life-threatening poison,” said Assemblymember Rendon.

Lead is a known toxin that we have already removed from everything from paint to gasoline to pencils to pipes. Fifty years of scientific research has shown that the presence of lead in the environment poses an ongoing threat to the health of the general public and the viability of the state’s wildlife, including the California condor, bald eagle and golden eagle. Dr. Don Smith, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology at UC Santa Cruz stated, “Lead based ammunition is likely the greatest, largely unregulated source of lead knowingly discharged into the environment in the U.S.”

Assemblymembers Pan and Rendon, creators of the bill, with Tesla, a golden eagle. (©Pam Flick)

Lead bullets fragment into tiny pieces when they hit an animal during hunting. These small lead fragments are then easily digested by humans as well as wildlife that eat the gut pile of dead animals. Animals also ingest lead when foraging in fields and pick up spent ammunition mistakenly. These lead fragments are highly toxic in the humans and animals that digest them. In humans, exposure to lead causes brain damage, learning problems and slowed growth and, for children, no amount of lead exposure is allowable. In wildlife, lead poisoning causes an agonizing death through paralysis and starvation.

Given the toxic threat from lead ammunition, there is no legitimate reason to oppose the use of non-lead ammunition when non-lead alternatives are available, effective and comparative in price with lead ammunition. As Assemblymember Mike Gatto stated in the committee hearing, “This is the right thing to do. We don’t hunt with poisoned darts for a reason and we shouldn’t use toxic ammunition for hunting.”

Former Fish and Game Commissioner and an avid hunter Judd Hanna testified in support of the bill in committee. Mr. Hanna was one of 27 distinguished hunters from California – including the current President and Vice President of the Fish and Game Commission – who sent a letter in support of the bill because they believe it is a reasonable and prudent solution to a public health and environmental threat. Defenders has been working on this issue for years, is a sponsor of this bill, and one of the organizations leading a broad coalition working to pass it. Now we’ve secured a majority of the members of the California Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee to vote to ban this toxic substance. Let’s hope the full California Assembly embraces the cause as well. Stay tuned.

We received thousands of fantastic photos of wildlife and wild lands in this year’s photo contest, and you helped us select winners by voting for your favorites. To see the winners of Defenders of Wildlife’s 4th annual photo contest, including who will be going on a wildlife photography tour with professional photographer Jess Lee, click here!

Thanks to everyone who submitted to the contest this year. We had some really fantastic photos, and it was hard to narrow it down to just the top ten for voting. If you want to see more great photos of wildlife and wild lands, here are 10 honorable mentions from this year’s submissions:

PausePlayPlayPrev|Next

Chewy, ©Hank Perry

Striking a Pose, ©Joshua Savage

A Bald Eagle performing a striking dominance landing. The Great Salt Lake, Utah

Humpback Whale Feeding Frenzy, ©Alice Cahill

Sea Lion in Repose, ©Lisa Burtis

Green Frogs, ©Valerie Donahue

These four Green Frogs were photographed at Marshlands Conservancy in Rye, New York. Initially, I observed them as two mating pairs, but then the frogs proceeded to line up for a group hug instead. It seemed as if they were posing for me, and I thought they were going to start singing The Rainbow Connection!

Night Mantis, ©Marie Maroney

Aurora Curtain along the Brooks Range, ©Larry Malvin

Mother Bear with Cubs, ©Lyssa Danehy

Pika: Hear Me Roar! ©Vaughn Cottman

Medicine Lake at Sunset, ©Ron Paul

Non-existent wolves more important than schools – In Utah, a little fear-mongering goes a long way. Despite a sharply worded editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune and a hilarious cartoon, legislators are moving forward with plans to hand over another $300,000 in taxpayer money to the leaders of the rabidly anti-predator group Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife for anti-wolf lobbying. Keep in mind that Utah currently has no known resident gray wolves. And even though the Grand Canyon eco-region has been recognized by numerous scientific studies as great habitat for Mexican wolves, there is not yet any plan to reestablish wolves in northern Arizona or southern Utah.  Meanwhile, funding for schools and other social programs is drying up faster than the Colorado River (see this comparison from Alliance for a Better Utah). The state gave Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Big Game Forever $300,000 last year for their anti-wolf crusades, with no strings attached and no accountability for how the money was spent.  Nobody seems to know what these groups are doing with all this taxpayer money, but here is what Don Peay, the founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, has proposed doing to wolves:

“I know what the sportsmen of Utah would do [about wolves]! Worse case, we would go to the PETA pound and save 1,000 dogs about to be killed by PETA and HSUS and stake them out in wolf areas – well fed and cared for of course – but when the wolves killed these dogs, get the wolves killed. Or we would go and buy a bunch of ba ba sheep, stake them out in five acre pens and when wolves killed them, get the wolves killed.” — Don Peay, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife

Unbelievably, the state is about to give these guys another $300,000.  Read the latest here. Our last hope is to convince Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to strike the expenditure with a line-item veto.

Finding the middle way – When dealing with the western wolf wars, it’s all too easy to pick a side (pro-wolf or anti-wolf) and ignore the rest. So it’s always refreshing when someone takes an outside perspective that sheds light on the vast gray area in between. A new wolf documentary from LinkTV’s Earth Focus does exactly that by telling the stories of the ranchers, tour guides, taxidermists and conservationists trying to chart a new path of coexistence between wolves and people. Defenders Rockies and Plains Director Mike Leahy offers some thoughts on how federal protections were unceremoniously removed from wolves without adequate state protections in place. Other long-time collaborators share their insights as well, including Carter Niemeyer, former wolf trapper and Idaho wolf recovery coordinator, Nathan Varley, Yellowstone wolf-tour operator, and representatives of People and Carnivores and the Blackfoot Challenge. Watch the full episode below:

And don’t miss UK journalist Jim Wickens’ blog series for a behind-the-scenes look at the people who bring this story to life.

New faces on Montana wildlife commission – Montana’s new governor, Steve Bullock, has appointed three new commissioners to oversee state wildlife management: Billings attorney Matthew Tourtlette, Chinook rancher Richard Stuker, and Wolf Point college director Lawrence Wetsit. We congratulate all three and look forward to working with them as well as returning commissioners Dan Vermillion and Bob Ream. Gov. Bullock has called on the commission to reinstate the wolf advisory council, which will hopefully steer the state away from ever-more aggressive wolf management practices.

The male wolf known as OR7 has been California’s lone ranger over the last year.

OR7 headed back home – After spending more than a year in the Golden State, the lone male wolf known as OR-7 appears to be headed home…at least for a little while. State wildlife managers say he crossed from northeastern Siskiyou County in California to southwest Klamath County in Oregon Tuesday evening. Who knows where he’s headed next… You can keep track with updates from Oregon and California.

Pacific Northwest update – Washington State senators debated two wolf bills during their March 8, 2013 session. Senate Bill 5188 takes wolf-management authority away from the state wildlife agency and turns it over to local law enforcement. Senate Bill 5187 would allow property owners and their designees too much discretion to kill wolves that they speculate may be threatening their livestock.  SB 5187 passed out last Friday with a vote of 25-23.  This is the strongest no vote made in recent years on a bad wildlife bill in the Senate.  Watch a televised hearing of the senate debate, including wolf champion Senator Kevin Ranker and other conservation minded leaders like Senator Christine Rolfes, beginning at the 13-minute mark. on the televised hearing: We are working with state legislators to defeat the anti-wolf bills in the House of Representatives.

Over in Oregon, Defenders is working with tribal biologists, ranchers and county extension agents at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla reservation in Pendleton.  The tribe recently included a top news story on meeting with tribal officials last month.

Carl Scheeler, manager of the CTUIR Wildlife Pro­gram, said Defenders of Wildlife have been the Tribes’ strongest and most durable partner in the conservation community when it comes to wolf recovery.

“We’ve been working with Defenders since before B45 came into the state in 1999,” said Scheeler, referring to the first wolf that swam the Snake River from Idaho into Oregon. — Confederated Umatilla Journal

Jonathan Proctor, Rockies and Plains Representative 

As I wrote last week, there are a number of anti-bison bills sailing through the Montana state legislature this year. These bills pose all kinds of threats to wild bison, including stopping restoration of wild Yellowstone bison to other parts of the state and allowing landowners to kill all bison that set hoof on private land. We have been working hard with Native American tribes, sportsmen’s groups and other conservation organizations to stop these bills.

On Tuesday, we all held a rally inside the Montana capitol building in Helena. Bison supporters from across the state were there to show legislators that the people of Montana want wild bison. Native American tribes from across Montana ran the event, and the crowd was predominantly from Montana’s seven Indian reservations. Dr. Ken Ryan, tribal elder from the Fort Peck Reservation Assiniboine tribe, held what we think is the first-ever pipe ceremony in the capitol building. Senator Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, a member of the Crow tribe, gave a talk that brought the crowd to their feet. A performance from Fort Belknap Reservation’s Wahkpa Nakoda Drum Group reverberated throughout the building. The message was clear: Kill the bills, not the bison.

News of the rally appeared in the Great Falls Tribune with a nice video of the event, the Bozeman Chronicle, Montana Public Radio, and local television stations. With so many Montanans speaking out in support of bison and against these harmful bills, we hope these attacks on Montana’s wild bison will soon come to a close.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress. In the meantime, check out these photos from the rally:

PausePlayPlayPrev|Next

Montana Capitol Building

The rally took place at the Montana state legislature in Helena.

Under Attack

All 10 of the anti-bison bills present serious threats to wild bison, and could put an end to all efforts to restore these iconic animals to the Great Plains.

"We're here to help you understand the significance of the buffalo in our culture."

Thomas Christian, member of the Fork Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribal Council, emceed the rally.

Drums in the Capitol

Wahkpa Nakoda Drum Group from Fort Belknap Reservation performed for the crowd, a rare event inside the Montana capitol building.

Looking Up

Even the artwork on the dome of the capitol building reflects the variety of people and cultures that form Montana.

"Let's find a better way."

Ervin Carlson, President, Intertribal Buffalo Council, discussed the unanimous tribal opposition to these anti-bison bills.

Bringing Bison Home

March 19, 2012: About 60 genetically pure bison were relocated from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, marking the long-awaited homecoming of wild bison to an important part of their historic range.

Bison at Fort Peck

Thomas Anketell, Council Member, Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board, spoke to the crowd about the importance of the new Yellowstone bison herd at Fort Peck Reservation.

"Don't Destroy Our Culture"

Tracy King, Fort Belknap Tribal Council President, told the legislators about the importance of wild bison to the tribes.

"The buffalo are one with the people of the state of Montana."

Senator Sharon Stewart-Peregoy (D, Crow Agency), a member of the Crow tribe, brought the crowd to its feet with a rousing speech.

Working Together

Jonathan Proctor, Defenders' Rockies and Plains Representative, talks with Defenders' allies Mike Fox, member of the Fort Belknap Tribal Council, and Mark Azure, Director of the Fort Belknap Fish and Wildlife Department, about our collective strategies to kill the bills.

A Future for Bison

Intolerance is the greatest threat to bison today. Together with our allies in the northern Great Plains, we're working to spread acceptance of wild bison and find more places for them to roam, so that we can continue the effort to bring these beautiful animals back to their historic range.

Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies Representative

OR-14, a wolf from the Umatilla River pack. (c) ODFW

In 1999, a female wolf from Idaho crossed over into central Oregon before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracked her down, darted her, caged her and then returned her to Idaho. She was the first known wolf to return to Oregon since the mid-1930s, when the species was officially eradicated. Her journey set efforts into motion that led to the creation of the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. Other legislation, knee-jerk county decrees and countless news stories followed, all speculating on what impact wolves might have as they returned to their historic homeland.

I served on the original team that helped draft the earliest versions of what eventually became the state’s wolf plan. That’s where I met Carl Scheeler, wildlife biologist for the Umatilla tribe in northeast Oregon, who would continue to help the state craft conservation strategies that were adopted in 2005. Carl is a great biologist and also good with people. His sometimes irreverent humor was always well timed to lift discussions that had become muddied or polarized. He seemed to know that, no matter what, things were going to work out. His optimism helped many of us endure the endless (and often thankless) work of forging a plan that would secure the restoration of wolves while meeting the needs of diverse residents.

Carl always looked forward to the day that wolves would be documented on the Umatilla reservation, and would call from time to time with reports of tracks, sightings and other hopeful signs. It wasn’t until last year, however, that his hopes were finally fulfilled. Carl’s department assisted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) in efforts to confirm the first wolf den site near the reservation. ODFW wolf biologists documented four pups last summer, and Defenders helped the tribe purchase several infrared, motion-detection wildlife cameras to continue monitoring the pack. In the fall, tribal biologists used the cameras we provided to document the alpha male of the pack. Then, just a few weeks ago, they captured this footage of the pack. We don’t know what startles the young wolf during the video, but notice how he submissively wraps his tail under his hindlegs. That’s normally the response of a lower-ranking wolf or pup when frightened.

Last week, Carl and I met with local ranchers and tribal and state wildlife managers to discuss nonlethal strategies for reducing conflicts between livestock and wolves on the reservation. We talked about the use of carcass disposal, increased human presence, fladry and other deterrents to reduce wolf and livestock losses. After the meeting, we followed up on a tip from a wildlife manager of another possible pack near tribal lands. It’s a beautiful national forest area that looks like the expansive valleys and rolling mountains in Yellowstone. There were loads of elk and plenty of deer sign in the large, open meadows and gorgeous red-barked Ponderosa pines towering above us as we drove through the rolling hills. After driving over washboard-pitted dirt roads with a blizzard bearing down on us, we found the spot where the tracks were reported. Tracking conditions were pretty good in the thin blanket of snow that covered most of the ground. Eager to confirm a new pack, we examined the tracks and quickly determined they were canine, but not wolf. Wolves have huge feet and leave a track that typically measures about five inches in length and three to four inches in width. That’s about the size of my hand, which is useful when I don’t have a ruler handy. Unfortunately, these were dog tracks – a big dog to be certain, but not his wild ancestor.

I always welcome the chance to return to the Umatilla country, and it’s even more powerful now with wolves back on the reservation. As one tribal leader assured me, “Wolves are welcome here and we hope to never lose them again.” Defenders will be part of that effort to ensure that wolves have a secure future on their historic homeland that they once again share with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla.

Washington wolves under legislative attack – Our top wolf expert Suzanne Stone was in Washington this week meeting with political leaders and agricultural representatives  to discuss the future of wolf management. She reports from the front lines that new legislation could undermine the state’s efforts to restore wolves:

“Washington stakeholders spent four years working to develop a comprehensive, science-based wolf management plan that underwent statewide public review.  It is a balanced plan that promotes nonlethal deterrents to help livestock owners protect against losses to wolves. It also allows wolves to be killed if they become habituated to killing livestock and provides compensation to livestock owners to cover documented losses.  But now powerful ranching advocates in the state senate are making an end-run around the plan to strip protection from wolves and allow their constituents to serve as judge, jury and executioner in killing wolves on private and public lands.  Without state oversight to ensure that wolves are even responsible for the losses blamed on them, innocent wolves could be killed by those who oppose their very presence in Washington.”

We’re asking wolf supporters in Washington to help us oppose state Senate bills designed to stop wolf recovery in its tracks. We need your voice to stand up to those who want to  cripple the plan and eradicate wolves. Please call your local legislators and tell them to VOTE NO on all senate wolf bills (SB 5187, SB 5188, SB 5193) . Access contact information for the senator in your area here.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced last week that the wolf population had nearly doubled since last year. That’s great news, but there are still only about 50 wolves in the state. We’ve got a long way  to go before Washington’s wolf conservation objectives are achieved, so let’s keep those numbers growing!

Fladry works – For years we’ve been promoting flag fencing, known as fladry, as an effective nonlethal tool for keeping livestock safe from wolves. We’ve worked with many ranchers who have used it effectively to protect both cattle and sheep, but now we have video evidence to prove it. Last year, through the support of donors, we provided Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife with  fladry that field biologists have used several times to successfully deter wolves from livestock.  These biologists cleverly tested the fladry with a video camera recently by stringing it around a cow carcass – a serious temptation for a hungry wolf. Even after repeated visits over several days, the wolf never crossed the fladry line. See for yourself:

Wyoming collars more wolves – There’s a lot to complain about when it comes to wolf management in Wyoming. At least 74 wolves have been killed since the state took over wolf management in September – 42 in the trophy game area and 32 (out of approximately 50 wolves) in the “predator zone,” where wolves can be killed at anytime  . But Wyoming Game and Fish does deserve a little credit for continuing to carefully monitor its wolf population. Early last week the department announced that they had collared 16 wolves in the trophy game area, putting a collar on at least one wolf in nearly every major pack. While collaring alone doesn’t protect wolves –as we’ve seen with the killing of several iconic, collared wolves from Yellowstone—it will help ensure that state and federal biologists have the information they need to accurately assess the health of the population. Without this information, wildlife managers can’t make informed decisions about how their actions are affecting the wolf population. Good management must be based on good data, and at least they’ve got that second part down.