Governor signs pistol microstamping
and lead ammunition ban legislation

By JIM MATTHEWS
Outdoor News Service

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two pieces of legislation on Saturday that were direct slaps in the face to gun owners, hunters, and common sense. His supposed ties to the conservative community suggested Arnold would veto both of them. He didn’t. The governor is looking more and more like Gray Davis every day, instead of Ronald Reagan.
The normally very mild-mannered Lawrence Keane, the senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) said:
"Governor Schwarzenegger has now effectively banned more firearms than Senators [Ted] Kennedy, [Dianne] Feinstein and [Charles] Schumer combined. The governor has proven to gun owners and sportsmen that he is just another liberal, anti-gun Hollywood actor -- he just plays a moderate Republican on TV. Mr. Schwarzenegger has now exposed himself for what he really is, the most anti-gun and anti-sportsmen governor in America."
Whoa! What do you really think Larry? But he has reason to be hot.
AB1471: Beginning in 2010, AB1471 mandates all semiautomatic handguns sold in California must be able to imprint tiny markings onto the fired brass shell casing that will identify the gun from which they were fired. The idea is that casing found at crime scenes can be traced back to the owner who did the dirty deed. Never mind that over 90 percent of crimes committed with firearms are done with stolen firearms. Or that you or I can ruin a handguns’ microstamping ability with an emery board from the wife’s purse. Or that a marginally bright crook could collect shell casings from a shooting range and dump a handful out the window when he does his next driveby. That will send the police barking up wrong trees everywhere. Older guns without microstamping aren’t banned, but I bet the attorney general’s office will make it illegal to sell, trade, or even give them to family in your will. And I don’t even want to think about what it will cost to manage this nightmare.
So I’ll cover all bets that any crime solved after 2010 that uses a microstamped shell casing as evidence will still be solved if the microstamped case wasn’t part of the evidence.
This is moronic legislation if you buy in to the stated purpose of the bill. It has nothing to do with solving crimes. It was never about solving crimes. What this legislation WILL do is dramatically reduce the volume and variety of semiautomatic handguns available for sale here, increase the cost of those that are sold, and effectively move toward eliminating a whole class of firearms in the state -- which is arguably exactly what the legislature wanted, even if it didn’t have the courage to say this directly.
The bill will ban guns on a larger scale than any piece of legislation ever passed in this country. And it has done it in the most oblique way possible. It did it without saying it was a gun ban.
I have $100 that says the legislature will now try to pass similar legislation with “microstamping” requirements for semi-automatic rifles, home defense shotguns (pump or semi-auto), and eventually all firearms. “The spent cases are like bread crumbs that lead right to the crooks,” they will say over and over -- without a shred of evidence this is true.
Backtracking on this trail of politicians’ words is like following bread crumbs to a pack of rats.
AB 821: The second bill the governor signed was AB 821, legislation that will ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting of big game and coyotes within the range of California condors.
Even the California Fish and Game Commission, the regulatory body that should handle such matters, wrote the governor to ask him to quash this bill. The Commission is -- or was (this is all kind of up-in-the-air and perhaps a moot point now) -- considering its own regulatory ban on lead big game and varmint ammunition ostensibly to protect condors. So why did they ask Arnold to veto the bill? Because the way the bill is written, it could effectively ban ALL ammunition and completely end big game hunting in condor range.
All it would take is an anti-hunting, whack job as attorney general, and, oh wait, we have former governor Moonbeam in that chair.
You see, there are trace amounts of lead in all of the solid copper bullets being touted as lead-free alternatives. All it would take is someone like Jerry Brown to say, “Nope, those Barnes X-bullets have itty, bitty amounts of lead. Banned lead.”
We didn’t help ourselves on this one. The National Rifle Association (NRA) and NSSF have been saying all along that lead was not a threat to condors. This is the quote you will read in press releases from both groups: “There is no conclusive scientific evidence that the birds are getting sick from ingesting ammunition fragments.”
I can show you an X-ray of a dead condor with a perfectly mushroomed rifle bullet in its digestive tract. The necropsy proved the bird died from lead poisoning. It didn’t die from lead picked up while breathing smoggy air, drinking tainted water, or eating paint chips off a wall in an old abandoned army depot. The lead slug killed it just as effectively as if it had been shot through the bird’s skull.
What we should be saying is that there’s only circumstantial and highly speculative evidence that condors are getting elevated lead levels, and occasional toxic levels, from hunter lead. We know there are occasional, rare incidents where condors have picked up lethal levels of lead from hunter’s bullets. However, there’s no proof the background lead in condor’s blood is only from bullet lead.
Correlation is not causation, and any scientist who makes that leap doesn’t deserve the title. The evidence is compelling that lead is problem, but certainly not conclusive. I’ve read nearly all the published scientific papers, and some of the authors should be ashamed of the leaps, the conclusions, they’ve made from the limited data.
Now, there’s apparently even some evidence coming to light that some of these people have selectively used data to make their points. That is shameful. In Arizona, it even looks like field “data” was introduced to make hunter lead seem like a bigger culprit than it might be in reality. That is criminal.
Yet, for the NRA and NSSF to say “there’s no conclusive evidence” is as grievous a mistake. This kind of rhetoric doesn’t help our image as the nation’s leading conservationists. In fact, it makes us look stupid, raving even. We all know lead is a toxin and that it has killed condors, including some lead from hunters’ ammunition. We can admit that and still point out that a ban is absolutely the wrong direction to go.
The passage of both of these bills is frustrating for the average California gun owner and hunter. We deserve better from our elected officials.

Waterfowl season kicks off this
weekend in Southern California

Waterfowl season kicks off in most of the Southern part of the state on Saturday, Oct. 20, and what follows is a round-up of public hunting areas in this region and news for this year.
The WISTER UNIT of the IMPERIAL WILDLIFE AREA on the southeast end of the Salton Sea is the most popular hunting destination for Southern California waterfowl hunters. Area manager Adolfo Hernandez said the refuge would have 100-plus blind sites available for opening day, including sites on the federal refuge. He said there were a lot of pintail on the area, along with good numbers of teal and shovelers. He even noted that a dozens snow geese were seen this week along with a handful of honkers.
Wister and the Hazard Unit of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge are open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system and a daily drawing for sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are permitted. Shoot days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information, contact the unit at 760-359-0577. The nearby Finney-Ramer Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area is open seven days a week under a self-registration system, but it is also managed through Wister.
The SAN JACINTO WILDLIFE AREA, located in western Riverside County near Lake Perris, continued to undergo a major facelift for hunters, with more blind sites and increased hunting opportunity. Scott Sewell, who manages the area, said there will be a total of 55 duck blinds and four goose pit blinds this season, nearly all of them open and available for this year’s opener Saturday.
“There are tons of birds and it looks really good. I saw a new flight of wigeon this morning,” said Sewell on Wednesday. He also said there were a few honkers and specks in the valley.
San Jacinto is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system or a daily drawing for remaining sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are also permitted throughout the shoot day. Shoot days are Wednesday and Saturday. For more information, contact the wildlife area at 951-928-0580.
The KERN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE opened to waterfowl hunting two weekends ago. Water allotments have been cut back this year, so there are fewer opening hunting areas this year. This past Saturday, there were 90 hunters who shot 269 ducks for a 2.9 average, mostly gadwall, shovelers and cinnamon teal.
While Kern is closer to many Southern California hunters than Wister, and it always carries some of the best bird-per-hunter averages in the state, it is less hunted than other waterfowl spots in this region.
Hunting at Kern is allowed on Wednesday and Saturdays through the state reservation system or a drawing for leftover sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are permitted. At least half of the sites available are reserved for walk-ons. For more information, call (661) 725-2767 or the very informative hunter's hotline at (661) 725-6504, which is normally updated after each hunt day.
RAAHAUGE'S DUCK CLUB in PRADO BASIN has finally had all of its ponds rebuilt after flooding three years ago destroyed the entire pond system. The final work is still being done, but Mike Raahauge said public blinds site will likely be available within two weeks. For an update, you can call Raahauge at 951-735-7981 or check the club's web site at www.raahauges.com.
At the SAN DIEGO CITY LAKES, hunting is allowed at BARRETT LAKE and SUTHERLAND RESERVOIR. Barrett is open Wednesday and Saturdays, while Sutherland is open Thursday and Sunday. There is a mail application deadline to apply for reservations each September and an in-person lottery in early October at San Vicente Reservoir. Hunters can reserve up to eight reservation dates for waterfowl hunting during this in-person lottery and all Barrett reservations are filled, but spots are still available for Sutherland.
The city has an information packet it mails to hunters that explains all of the details of the program and includes application forms. Hunters can call the city lakes at (619) 668-2050 to request a packet.
LAKE HENSHAW will be open in late November or early December. This San Diego County water is a popular location for scull boaters. Hunt days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fee has not been set yet, but it was $40 per hunter per day last year. For more information, contact the lake at 760-782-3501.
Also in San Diego County, LAKE CUYAMACA has a late, short waterfowl hunt. Usually opening around Dec. 1, there are 20 to 22 blind sites available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Shoot days are Wednesdays and Sundays until noon. For more information on reservations, write Lake Cuyamaca Waterfowl Hunt, 15027 Highway 79, Julian, CA 92036, or call 760-765-0515. The website address is www.lakecuyamaca.org.
The CIBOLA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE on the Colorado River is a popular spot for goose hunters who set out large spreads of decoys in groomed goose fields. Reservations are issued through a drawing, but there is also daily waiting line for unfilled blind sites when the fields open in November. There are also several open duck and goose hunting areas (open seven days a week), with the island unit having the best habitat and blind sites this year. For refuge information, call 928-857-3253 or visit the web site at
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/CibolaNWR/index.html.
Neglected spots on the river include the HAVASU NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE and the IMPERIAL NATIONAL WIDLIFE REFUGE, located north and south of Cibola. At the Havasu refuge near Needles, Pintail Slough has been completely refurbished and reopened last fall. You can get more information about the revamped hunting program or make reservations by calling 760-326-3853 or by visiting the web site at http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/arizona/havasu/. Imperial, located north of Yuma, has miles of backwaters and sloughs for the hunter with a boat, and it's not uncommon for hunters to see a wide variety of diving and dabbling ducks. For more information, you can call 928-783-3371 or visit the web site at http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/arizona/imperial.html.
Complete waterfowl hunting results and news will be a part of this report each week.

Upland bird season
outlook very gloomy

Almost no production and a declining number of holdover birds points to a tough quail and chukar hunting season for Southern California hunters who will take to the field Saturday for the season opener.
“It looks pretty grim,” said Bill Dobbs, the habitat chairman for the High Desert Chapter of Quail Unlimited. “There are birds around, but it’s going to be rough hunting. Be prepared to do a lot of hiking.”
Dobbs said the desert QU chapter did a dozen brood counts for the Department of Fish and Game, and the number of juvenile birds was way down, with almost no production.
Andy Pauli, the DFG biologist for the Mojave, said “there was nothing in the way of production this year out in the open desert. And it’s going to be really tough next year if we don’t get some rain.”
Pauli said he was a little surprised at the number of holdover birds still coming to desert springs and guzzlers. These are mostly birds that were hatched two or more seasons ago because last year’s production was as bad as this year. While Pauli counted 46 adult chukar at a guzzler in the West Mojave, he said most of the QU counts only had from six to 20 chukar, and West Mojave quail have all but disappeared again.
Two seasons ago, because of good late winter and early spring rains, the desert birds had a tremendous production year. Counts of over 300 birds were made at several desert water sources, and in one four mile stretch near Barstow, QU members counted just under 1,000 chukar crossing the road in one direction (so as to not double count). Dobbs said they saw at least twice as many birds flushing or never crossing the road on that rolling survey.
Both Pauli and Dobbs have seen it worse in the West Mojave.
“There have been years when I’d only see one or two birds, and then the next year there’d be 200. It’s really amazing how they can come back. Now, we’re just hoping for a good, wet winter,” said Pauli.
Because of the drought conditions, Pauli said the volunteers from Quail Unlimited and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep have been working overtime this year hauling water to drinkers that are nearly dry to provide water for birds and bighorn.
Both QU and SCBS will need volunteers into the fall to check on and help haul water for wildlife. To volunteer, you can call Gary Thomas at SCBS at 909-981-5487 or via e-mail at g.cranky@verizon.net. You can also visit the sheep society’s web site at http://www.scbs-californiadesertbighorn.com/ for more information. The High Desert Chapter contacts are Cruz Garcia at 760-949-6334 or by e-mail at fathercruz@verizon.net. You can call Dobbs at 760-947-7823 to find out about the next QU work project.
So far this year, both groups have hauled thousands of gallons of water to fill up dry or drying water sources. It’s a job that won’t be over until the first fall rains come to the desert.

Art selected for 75th anniversary
of the federal duck stamp program

Wildlife artist Joe Hautman of Plymouth, Minn., won the 2007 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest -- the oldest and most prestigious wildlife art competition in America -- with his depiction of a pair of pintail ducks. Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced the winner in front of a crowd of 300 people at the contest, held at BIG Arts in Sanibel, Fla., on Saturday.
  “People talk about how art can change the world, and the Duck Stamp is an excellent example,” said Kempthorne. “You just need to look at the more than five million acres of waterfowl habitat protected by their purchase using funds from the stamp for proof of the power of this art.”
Hautman also won the Federal Duck Stamp contest in 1992 and 2002, and his brothers, Bob and Jim, are also multiple Federal Duck Stamp Contest winners. Jim has won it three times before, and Bob has won it twice. All three are avid duck hunters and Joe Hautman said he was thankful that the Fish and Wildlife Service was able to “this artwork into wetlands and ducks.”
“It’s become something of a family tradition,” said Joe, whose brothers also entered the contest. “This is the longest stretch we’ve gone without winning, I think, so among the three of us, we just wanted one of us to do well and keep that string going a little bit longer.”
Hautman’s painting was chosen from among 247 entries from artists across the country, and it will be featured on the 2008-2009 Federal Duck Stamp, which will go on sale in late June, 2008.
Federal Duck Stamp sales raise about $25 million each year to fund wetland habitat acquisition for the National Wildlife Refuge System.
All waterfowl hunters age 16 and older are required to purchase and carry the current Migratory Bird Conservation and Hunting Stamp -- commonly known as the Duck Stamp -- but conservationists, stamp collectors and others also purchase the stamp in support of habitat conservation. Ninety-eight percent of the proceeds from the $15 Duck Stamp go to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund, which supports the purchase of acres of wetlands for inclusion into the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The annual Federal Duck Stamp Contest is the only federally-sponsored juried art competition, and is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This year’s contest crowns the winner of the 75th duck stamp since the program’s inception in 1934.
"This was the most exciting Duck Stamp contest in history,” said H. Dale Hall, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “To have a three-way tie for first place, then to have the artist and his family right here in the audience, was fantastic. We’re going to continue to move this contest around the country to give the public a chance to own this.”
To date, Duck Stamp funds have been used to acquire habitat at hundreds of refuges, in nearly every state in our nation. There are 548 national wildlife refuges spread across all 50 states and U.S. territories. A current Duck Stamp can be used for free admission to any national wildlife refuge open to the public. Refuges offer recreational opportunities, including hunting, fishing, bird watching and photography.

Federal duck stamp art comes to
Wildlife Art Festival in Redlands

REDLANDS – The 25th annual Wildlife Art Festival, featuring the top entries in the federal duck stamp art competition, will be held at the San Bernardino County Museum Nov. 16-18.
Joe Hautman, winner of this year’s competition for the 75th federal duck stamp, and festival artist Lee Kromschroeder will be joined by 23 of the West’s finest wildlife artists during this event.
Show hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Members of the San Bernardino County Museum Association can also attend 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16. Admission is $6 for adults, with students and seniors $5. Children 5 to 12 are $4. Children under 5 and museum association members are free.
For more information, call the museum at 909-307-2669 or visit the web site at www.sbcountymuseum.org.

Action Updates

Inyo National Forest officials try
to pull fast one on road closures

Massive road closures are on tap in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, but the public has a final meeting next week to comment on proposed road closures in the Inyo National Forest. This meeting is set to begin at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 23, at the Kerr McGee Community Center, 100 W. California Avenue, in Ridgecrest.
After three years of letting the public think that they were following guidelines outlined early in the process by Forest Supervisor Jeff Bailey, the Forest Service suddenly changed direction immediately before the start of the formal public process. Bailey's guidelines led the public to believe that most of the existing roads would be included in the road inventory base for the draft environmental impact statement. However, at the last moment, the Forest Service has suddenly withdrawn the guidelines established by the recently retired supervisor and reverted to an obscure, out-of-date 1977 interagency map as the base for the designated route system.
To make matters worse, the Forest Service recently announced that they will designate long-existing roads in the "roadless areas" as "trails" which will eliminate use by full-sized, street-legal, four-wheel drive vehicles from many of the existing routes on the forest.
In addition, the maps on the CDs currently being distributed by the Forest Service are of much lower quality and resolution than what was provided to the pubic last January as a "sample" CD of what the public could expect in the final maps. The maps on the "sample" CD showed all of the inventoried existing roads with associated route numbers and which roads the Forest Service planned to keep or eliminate. Unfortunately, the current CDs only shows the roads and trails that the Forest Service plans to keep for the final transportation system. This makes it very hard for the pubic to provide meaningful comments and conceals the scope of the massive road closures from the pubic.
The current CDs that include the associated documents and maps can
Be obtained from the following Inyo National Forest and BLM offices: Mono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center in Lee Vining, the Mammoth Welcome Center in Mammoth Lakes, the Forest Supervisor's Office on Pacu Lane in Bishop, the Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine, and the BLM Office in Ridgecrest.
If you enjoy any recreation on the Inyo National Forest, it is imperative that you attend the meeting. At the last moment, the Forest Service has changed the whole process from what we have been told for the past three years. These eleventh-hour changes in the process are an outrage and should not be allow to stand without a loud public outcry.
Anyone wishing to receive information regarding issues related to the management of public lands in the California Desert should send an e-mail to
schiller@ridgecrest.ca.us and request to be placed on the e-mail distribution list. Please include "ADD TO LIST" in the subject line.
-- Ron Schiller, Chairman, High Desert Multiple Use Coalition, e-mail schiller@ridgecrest.ca.us

Draft desert tortoise recovery plan is now
available on-line -- all 180 pages of it
An draft copy of the 180-page, revised Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan is now available on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s web site at this address:
http://www.fws.gov/nevada/desert_tortoise/dt_reports.html. The plan could impact hunters and other recreational users through road closures, hunting and shooting restrictions, and water management decisions.
Two open houses are also tentatively scheduled for November 6 and 8 to review and provide input on the draft plan. The USFSW is currently looking into
venues in Las Vegas, Nev., and Redlands on Nov. 6 and 8. Each open house will include three, 2-hour sessions. Each session will begin with an overview of the draft plan. Participants will then be able interact with, ask questions of, and provide feedback to recovery planning staff in an informal setting. Participants are welcome to attend one or more sessions throughout the day and come and go at their leisure.
After considering input received at the open houses, the draft Recovery Plan will be revised, and a final, formal public comment period will be opened following the release of the official final Draft Recovery Plan near the beginning of the next calendar year. Additional information on the locations and for the open houses will be posted to the Desert Tortoise Recovery Office website at http://www.fws.gov/nevada/desert_tortoise/dtro_announcements.html.
For more information on the plan and meeting schedule, contact Roy C. Averill-Murray at 775-861-6362 or at Roy_Averill-Murray@fws.gov.
-- Cliff McDonald, Mojave Preserve Water-for-Wildlife Volunteer Group, 760-326-2935, e-mail bigmc@citlink.net

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