Lead Ban ChroniclesWell, this didn’t take as long as I might have thought it would. 

Under pressure from various hunting, shooting, and angling organizations, the National Park Service re-traced its steps and offered the following clarification about the recent announcement that lead ammo and fishing tackle would be banned from the parks by 2010.

For Immediate Release:
 March 18, 2009
Contact(s):   David Barna, 202-208-6843 

Clarification Statement

WASHINGTON – On March 10, 2009, the National Park Service distributed a press release entitled “National Park Service Gets the Lead Out.” Due to some confusion over its contents, the agency provides the following clarifying statements:

  1. Nothing has changed for the public. We are simply announcing the NPS goal of eliminating lead from NPS activities to protect human and wildlife health.
  2. We will work to clean our own house by altering NPS resource management activities. In 2009, we will transition to non-lead ammunition in culling operations and dispatching sick or wounded animals.
  3. In the future, we will look at the potential for transitioning to non-lead ammunition and non-lead fishing tackle for recreational use by working with our policy office and appropriate stakeholders/groups. This will require public involvement, comment, and review.

In other words, never mind. 

Really?

I dunno, and maybe I should just applaud and shut up, but does that come across just a shade disingenous?  Why not admit it for what it was, a major policy SNAFU that nearly blew up in the National Park(ing lot) Service’s collective faces? 

One other key point to recognize is that the NPS did not say they will not move to ban lead ammo or tackle later.  They also stated that their intent was to protect the health of humans and wildlife by removing lead, despite the lack of consistent evidence that lead is a risk to either population.  In other words, this will come back, and it will be justified by the same inconsistent data.  Unless conclusive evidence can be found that lead ammo and fishing tackle do not present a risk to humans, wildlife, or the environment, we can count on seeing lead banned in the National Parks in the near future (and in other federally managed lands and waters soon after). 

And if conclusive evidence is found to the contrary… well, what then?

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