We need your help — on lead ammunition, and falcon rescue
By Ilana DeBare
Some weeks are quiet. It’s fine to go birding, take some photos, come home and have a glass of wine.
Then there are weeks like this, when we are asking our members to speak out on two different conservation issues!
Lead Ammunition Ban – Support AB 711
Lead is a dangerous toxin and has been banned in toys, paint and gasoline. But it’s still commonly used by hunters in ammunition. Lead fragments accumulate in prey and in the carcasses left behind by hunters, which then are eaten by raptors such as California Condors and Golden Eagles.
In fact, the leading cause of death today for adult California Condors is not old age — it’s lead poisoning. One in five free-flying condors has ingested such significant levels of lead from ammunition that it is at risk of dying from lead poisoning.
This summer, California Audubon is sponsoring a bill to ban lead ammunition in California. AB 711 has passed the State Assembly. Now we need to get AB 711 through the state Senate — and we need your help!
Equally important, do you have friends or relatives outside the Bay Area in swing districts? Tell them about this issue and ask them to call their state senators in support of AB 711.
You can find more information — including sample text of a letter — in the Action Alert we sent out this week.
Loni Hancock: 916 651 4009 (phone)Tell US FWS to allow the continued rescue of Peregrine Falcon chicks from bridges
This issue is far narrower in scope than the lead ammunition issue, affecting only three or four Peregrine Falcon chicks each year. But for those birds, it means life or death — and a totally unnecessary death if it comes to that.
Peregrine Falcons — which only recently recovered from near-extinction die to DDT — often choose bridges as a nesting site since so much of their natural habitat has been lost to development. But chicks learning to fly off a bridge risk falling into the water and drowning.
For decades, the U.C. Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group has been rescuing and successfully relocating falcon chicks from Northern California bridges. The chicks they’ve saved grow up and increase the falcon population.
But earlier this summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would no longer issue permits for the PBRG to rescue falcons in Northern California.
Their reasoning is that peregrines are no longer endangered, and in fact prey upon other endangered species such as California Least Terns and Snowy Plovers.
Those things are true. But peregrines remain on California’s state list of protected species. And they are hardly the biggest threat to Least Terns and Plovers — the biggest threat is human disturbance and habitat loss.
For many Bay Area residents, peregrines represent an inspiring bit of wildness in our urban lives. And Glenn Stewart and the PBRG are willing to rescue chicks from bridges at no cost to taxpayers.
So… we’ve created an online petition asking FWS to reverse its decision about the permits. You can read, sign and add your personal comments to the petition here.
As of Friday afternoon, we had almost 400 signatures. And people’s comments are both insightful and inspiring. Here are a few:
Peregrine Falcons are an important part of the predator/prey web. Instead of letting the chicks drown we should be looking at how to reduce the numbers in the gull populations that are the major source of predation for shore birds. –Wendy S.
Bridges are not a natural feature of the landscape. Don’t let this artificial construct stop authorities from doing the right thing. Save this family that nests here yearly from having their offspring die in the water. –Lenore S.
Peregrine falcons are still protected in California. While they have made an amazing comeback , we still lose some every year. In the last couple of years, 2 banded birds were shot. Another was shot last year at SFO. None of these birds survived. The mortality at the SF PGE nest is 50%. We can not squander these precious birds. The thought that they will fledge into the cold sea seems pretty outrageous for a government agency that is charged with protecting our wildlife. These rescues cost US FWS nothing. I urge you to restore the permits to rescue falcon chicks. — Deborah B.
Will you add your name to the petition to continue falcon rescue?
And will you make a phone call to support the ban on lead ammunition?
Then… you can go back to that weekend of birding and evening glass of wine!