''The New Brunswick government has no plans to force New Brunswick hunters to hunt with anything other than lead shot for upland game.''
Alan Graham, natural re�sources minister
OTTAWA -- Under threat from the New Brunswick government, Ottawa backed down on its complete ban of lead shot for hunting birds.
Instead, new regulations approved by the federal cabinet allow lead shot for uplands game, and in particular in the annual woodcock hunt.
''This is great. I am really happy about it,''' said outfitter Danny Villeneuve who has run Hideaway Lodge near Canterbury along with his brother for the past 12 years.
A year ago, after former Environment Minister Sheila Copps reversed a previous promise to exempt uplands hunting from a general ban on lead shot, Natural Resources and Energy Minister Alan Graham sent a blistering letter to Ottawa.
''The New Brunswick government has no plans to force New Brunswick hunters to hunt with anything other than lead shot for upland game,'' Mr. Graham wrote to Ms. Copps successor, Sergio Marchi.
While Mr. Graham agreed with a ban on lead shot for waterfowl hunting such as ducks and geese, he argued there was no evidence that the use of lead shot was harmful for uplands species such as woodcock -- a forest bird about twice the size of a robin.
Alternatives to lead shot were inappropriate in a hunt for such a small bird because the animal was destroyed at close range or simply escaped injured at longer range, said Mr. Graham. Only lead shot succeeded in killing the bird without ruining it.
In one of her first acts in her new portfolio, Christine Stewart passed the ban, but specifically exempted woodcock and two other species, band-tailed pigeons and mourning doves, for which there is a hunt in British Columbia.
''During extensive consultations, we have heard from many interested parties,'' Ms. Stewart said. ''I believe that this is a reasonable modification of the original plan to implement the Canada-wide ban in 1997.'' However, government biologists will continue to study the effect of lead in the forests with an eye to a future ban, she warned.
In New Brunswick, the annual six-week woodcock hunt begins in mid-September. It ends when the frost kills the woodcocks' food supply, mostly insects and earthworms, and the woodcocks fly south.
Pat Kehoe, a waterfowl biologist with the New Brunswick Natural Resources and Energy Department said the compromise resembles an original agreement that was reached in 1993.
In that year, all governments agreed to ban lead shot in waterfowl hunting because there was strong evidence the lead was poisoning the birds. Waterfowl eat small stones to help them digest food, and many of the birds were ingesting lead pellets which were killing them and even entering the food chain and killing the animals that feed on the birds. As a result, it was agreed that steel shot should be used instead, and that a ban on lead shot in waterfowl hunting would be in place by this year.
But Ms. Copps extended it unilaterally, despite the lack of evidence lead shot was harmful for forest birds which do not eat pebbles to help them digest food, said Mr. Kehoe.
Mr. Graham went to bat to defend the woodcock hunt worth $2.5-million to the provincial economy.
A traditional hunt with dogs and double-barrel shotguns, it attracts hunters from New England and Europe who pay expensive fees to provincial outfitters.
Mr. Villeneuve, for example, is awaiting the arrival of a group of Italian hunters who will pay $450-a-day to stay at Hideaway Lodge. He said the lead shot is far better than the steel shot because it is heavier and is able to retain power over longer distances. Steel shot tends to slow quickly and simply maim birds, allowing them to get away and probably die elsewhere.
''As far as duck hunting is concerned, I have no problem with moving to steel, but to apply it to upland game I thought was a bit ridiculous,'' he said.
From: "Butters, Brian"[[email protected]]
To: fhryder [[email protected]]
Subject: Re: Ottawa backs down from led shot ban
Date: Wed, 03 Sep 97 10:15:00 PDT
Go ahead and post this story, with credit, as proposed.
Thanks.
Brian Butters