Last month, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) ruled to ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle on individual refuge units in the coming years, including leaving open the possibility of extending the ban to more refuges in the future. This final rule fails to consider any alternatives that can mitigate lead exposure to wildlife populations and humans. Instead, FWS jumped to the most restrictive and politically expedient option of banning lead ammunition.
In hearing about this flagrant ruling against hunters and anglers, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), U.S. Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR), the House Natural Resources Ranking Member, immediately acted. The “Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2022” was introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the House.
These bills block the newly implemented and arbitrary “2022-2023 Station-Specific Hunting and Sport Fishing Regulations” that phases out the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on many refuges, along with prohibiting the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture from banning the use of lead on federal lands. The bills also require federal agencies to ensure that any lead ban is consistent with existing state law and regulation and that a state’s fish and wildlife agency has approved the lead ban where the unit of federal land is located. This will ensure that federal agencies are working in concert with state agencies, the traditional managers of many fish and wildlife species that are hunted and fished on public lands.
The bills include an exception that would allow for the regulation of lead ammunition or tackle, but only if the respective secretary can prove with specific science that lead ammunition or tackle is causing a decline in a wildlife population and the regulations are consistent with state law.
Please email Sen. Steve Daines, Rep. Rob Wittman and Rep. Bruce Westerman and thank them for working to protect America’s hunting heritage, hunters and anglers.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.