outdoors

More lead shot restrictions?

Lead shot -- long banned for waterfowl hunting -- soon could be prohibited for upland hunters on state wildlife areas, and perhaps even on private lands in farm country.

DNR leaders and citizens on a nontoxic shot advisory committee say such restrictions are inevitable, given the known toxicity of lead and the development of nontoxic alternatives.

"Lead is going to be facing dramatic challenges," said DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten. "I expect the Legislature to debate nontoxic shot this session."

The citizens committee issued a report last year saying it's inevitable that lead shot be restricted for all shotgun hunting in the future. The group said restrictions should be phased in over time.

Initial options include prohibiting lead shot on state wildlife management areas in the farmland region. (It already is restricted on federal wildlife areas statewide.) Or prohibiting it on both state and private lands in that region.

A new survey of Minnesota hunters' attitudes toward lead shot restrictions indicates about 40 percent would oppose such a proposal, 40 percent would support it and the rest are undecided.

"We have a real split population out there," said David Fulton of the Minnesota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Minnesota, who conducted the survey. He presented preliminary results to the roundtable.

According to the survey, a good number of Minnesota upland hunters already have made the switch. About 60 percent of pheasant hunters use lead, and 40 percent use steel or other nontoxic alternatives.

Overall, 66 percent of small game hunters said they mostly or always used lead shot and 14 percent said they never used it. Nineteen percent said they occasionally use it.

Some hunters said such restrictions are unnecessary government regulation, would require more expensive ammunition and would increase crippling and wounding loss.

But a majority also believed a ban would lead to some protection of wildlife.

Reaction at the DNR's roundtable was mixed.

Les Bensch of the Minnesota Game Breeders Shooting Association, who owns Viking Valley Hunt Club near Fergus Falls, said he instituted lead shot restrictions at his facility five years ago because of concern over the toxicity of lead shot.

"I think it's a real problem," he said.

His customers overwhelmingly have accepted the restrictions, he said.

But Ryan Bronson of Federal Cartridge Corp. in Anoka, one of the nation's biggest ammunition manufacturers, said his company opposes any additional restrictions on lead shot in Minnesota.

"We don't think it's needed because we don't think there's any evidence that lead shot is causing any problems to wildlife and absolutely no evidence lead shot is causing any human health problems," Bronson said.

"If there are regulatory efforts in Minnesota, the National Rifle Association is likely to come in and oppose those very heavily. They've told us that."

Fishing license fee increase

"We are exploring a [fishing] license fee increase," said Dave Schad, DNR Fish and Wildlife Division director. The reason: An imbalance in spending between the fisheries and wildlife divisions. Currently, fisheries spends millions of dollars generated by hunting license fees. In 2006-07, wildlife spent 88 percent of its revenues while fisheries spent 113 percent.

The problem was identified by the Game and Fish Fund Budget Oversight Committee. Schad said increased revenues have been generated by deer hunting licenses while fishing license revenues have remained stable. It is a revenue issue, not an expenditure issue, he said.

"We agree hunters shouldn't subsidize anglers, and vice versa," Schad said.

But officials don't want to raise fishing license fees so high that it discourages angling. The issue is expected to be debated in the Legislature this session, which begins next month.

Simplify deer hunting regs

The DNR gets complaints that hunting regulations -- especially deer hunting regulations -- are too confusing. Surveys show about 85 percent of hunters seem to understand the deer hunting rules, but the 15 percent who don't represents about 80,000 people.

So the agency is considering ways to simplify them. The number of types of deer licenses might be reduced, zones could be eliminated and tagging could be simplified.

DNR big game coordinator Lou Cornicelli expects changes. A citizen committee exploring the issues will make recommendations soon.

Fishing regulation changes

Complexity also is a concern for the state's fishing regulations. Scores of lakes and rivers have special regulations, which causes confusion, and there might be support to try to simplify regulations.

At least one legislator has suggested a four-walleye statewide bag limit instead of six.

Walk-in hunting

The DNR asked roundtable participants for feedback on a walk-in hunting program, which would pay private landowners to allow public hunting. The agency is preparing a report for the Legislature.

No word yet on how many acres it would include nor the cost, but officials said it likely would be expensive.

Land values are higher in Minnesota than in western states, where such programs are popular. New funding likely would have to be found, because officials don't want to take money from current wildlife programs.