Posted on 09/15/2007 6:59:39 PM PDT by neverdem
SACRAMENTO A state Fish and Game commissioner, who last month indicated he would support a ban on the use of lead ammunition in areas where condors roam, resigned Thursday, saying his resignation was requested by the Schwarzenegger administration.
R. Judd Hanna's resignation came the day after 34 Republican legislators sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a letter asking for his dismissal.
The events were the latest in a continuing struggle over attempts by lawmakers and regulators to require deer hunters to use copper bullets in condor zones. Lead poisoning caused by ingesting bullet fragments in the carcasses of fallen animals is the leading cause of mortality among condors in the wild.
"This is going to be a big black eye for the governor," said Pamela Flick of the Defenders of Wildlife, which is advocating for the ban. "The NRA gets together in cahoots with Republican legislators, and three days later we've got a good commissioner who's done his job booted out the door."
An alliance of gun and hunting groups earlier called the proposed ban on lead bullets "draconian." In a letter to the commission last month, the group said the proposal "reflects a hidden agenda by some to ban all hunting in California."
Hanna declined to elaborate on his resignation, but in an e-mail to Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman he wrote that he had been asked to resign.
"The mission of the commission has been deflected by a special interest group," he wrote in the e-mail obtained by The Star. "One of the commission's most important mandates, protection of an endangered species has been hijacked."
Passed along information
Schwarzenegger's office declined to comment on the resignation, or to say whether anyone in the administration has requested that Hanna quit. "We never comment on personnel matters," said Press Secretary Aaron McLear.
Sam Paredes, executive director of the Gun Owners of California, praised the action, saying Hanna had violated his role as a commissioner by indicating his support for the proposed ban.
"You're supposed to sit there taking in information, weighing both sides," Paredes said. "He was, in effect, being an advocate."
In his e-mail, Hanna acknowledged he had passed along information he had gathered to other commissioners, and said he did so because the commission's legal counsel advised he was obligated to share such information with his colleagues.
In their letter, the GOP lawmakers said Hanna distributed 167 pages of documents to fellow commissioners "with his own personal annotations throughout, in an effort to support a lead ammunition ban."
Urged veto
Hanna, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot, has a Master of Business Administration from Stanford and owns a ranch in Tehama County. A hunter and fisherman, he was appointed by Schwarzenegger in February to a term that had been scheduled to run through 2013.
His resignation also comes two days after Commission President Richard Rogers of Santa Barbara sent a letter to Schwarzenegger urging him to veto legislation that would enact the ban by statute.
Rogers wrote the commission is the agency that should make such decisions, arguing its "decision-making process ensures that a decision will be based on the best available science."
The commission argued any ban should be in the form of regulations adopted by the commission, not state statute.
No regard for the process'
Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, who wrote the bill that would prohibit deer hunters from using lead ammunition in condor areas, said the events that led to Hanna's resignation show the commission process is, in fact, political.
"The fate of the condor is too important to leave to a political commission subject to the whims of disgruntled elected officials," Nava said. "We are dealing with folks who have absolutely no regard for the process."
Schwarzenegger must decide whether to sign or veto Nava's AB821 by Oct. 12. Meanwhile, the commission is on course to hold hearings on the issue at its October meeting and to make a decision either in November or December.
The issue was first brought to the commission's attention in 2003. The agency has been sued by the Natural Resources Defense Council for having failed to protect an endangered species.
In comments directed "to 34 legislators, the NRA and fellow hunters," Hanna wrote in his e-mail that the hunting community will alienate the public at large with its resistance to changing from lead bullets to copper.
The public, Hanna wrote, "will tolerate hunting providing it is done ethically and honorably. Poisoning the California condor is neither honorable nor ethical."
© 2007 Ventura County Star
In other news, the price of cow dung has reached a new high.....
Ping for later comment.
No matter what the outcome of all this, I will continue hunting and I am volunteering to switch to non-lead ammunition. Just bought a box at my local store in Salinas. I figure we all win - a cleaner outdoors, healthier wildlife, and I take home a buck.
Would depleted uranium be OK?
Only if you don’t care about your own health.
Only if you don’t care about your own health.
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