Great piece in today's Monterey County Herald by Kelly Sorenson of the Ventana Wildlife Society, one of the leading agencies doing hands-on rehabilitation of the California Condor in Big Sur. Sorenson notes how strange it is that his organization has been targeted by the NRA as an enemy, and notes that the lead ammunition problem can be solved without harming the practice of hunting in California:

The fear is that eliminating lead bullets would amount to a ban on hunting, but that hasn't happened in the area where non-lead ammo is required. Not even close. Condors are still being poisoned because of lack of compliance with current law caused by an insufficient amount of alternative ammo on the market. Was paint or gasoline banned when lead was removed from these products? Of course not, and neither will hunting, just as waterfowl hunting in the 1990s continued despite the ban on lead shot.

(photo by Gary Kramer/USFWS)