A partnership to conserve wildlife and hunting heritage

The undersigned recognize that sportsmen and -women have been at the forefront of natural resource conservation throughout North America for over a century, and hunters have successfully met numerous conservation challenges in the past. The ability of the sporting community to voluntarily prevent wildlife lead poisoning from ammunition continues that tradition; provides an additional, high-visibility opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the conservation of America’s wildlife; and a mechanism to minimize unintentional impacts on wildlife health while protecting the public image of hunting and the associated benefits to the conservation of wildlife and habitat;

Whereas, legal, regulated hunting has been and remains the foundation of the highly successful North American Model of Wildlife Conservation; and

Whereas, effective ecosystem management requires engaged and passionate advocates for wildlife and habitat, including both hunters and other conservation-minded citizens; and

Whereas, there is credible and substantial scientific evidence showing that lead ammunition can cause unintended impacts on our wildlife resources; and

Whereas, we believe expansion of current proactive conservation efforts by hunters will help conserve wildlife and continue to maintain public support of legal hunting; and

Whereas, continued research and current efforts indicate that hunters have a very high willingness to take action if asked by a credible peer or group within the sporting community;

Therefore, we declare that it is our goal to work collaboratively to minimize the unintended impacts of lead ammunition on wildlife and support the continued contributions of legal hunting to wildlife conservation by:

• Design and promote voluntary measures to increase the use of non-lead ammunition
• Supporting the continued long-term viability of scientifically managed hunting and the associated conservation culture by providing programs that encourage sports-men and -women participation in conservation actions
• Supporting continued efforts to conduct scientific research into the relative risk associated with specific lead exposure pathways between use of lead ammunition and wildlife
• Use scientific evaluation to assess and improve programs

APPENDIX A – PRINCIPAL CONTACTS

The principal contacts for this resolution are:

The Peregrine Fund

Chris Parish  •   Phone: (928) 606-5155   •   E-mail: cparish@peregrinefund.org

The Oregon Zoo

Leland Brown   •   Phone: (971) 284-4193   •   E-mail: leland.brown@oregonzoo.org