I think everyone will have to agree that's not a bad idea. If the hunter groups get on board with that decision it will make them look very good. Kinda like when the hunter groups in Arizona endorsed compulsory non-lead bullets for deer hunting in areas adjacent to Grand Canyon. Lead poisoning was creaming efforts to reestablish the California condor. The condors scavenged gut piles which, as we know, frequently have lead bullets or fragments in them. Anyway, the positive attitude of the sportsmen groups went a very long ways towards putting some shine on an image that gets a lot of tarnish these days. Nice to see them and the National Park Service on the same page for once. Boy, is that rare!

Wonder if the there is a correlation between the wolf population increase and the moose population decrease? Of course even if there was we would never hear about it.

Rock Rat, I haven't found any information indicating that the lead poisoning in California condors is not overwhelmingly caused by ingesting bullet fragments in dead animals or gut piles. If you have some other information I'd like to see it.

Note that I said "overwhelmingly". Lead, like mercury and just about any other toxic heavy metal, can be found naturally in many environments. And that's a good thing because many of them are essential elements necessary (in minute quantities) for a healthy body. Studies have shown that lead does naturally occur in the Grand Canyon environment, but in trace amounts. The evidence is fairly conclusive that lead bullets were causing the problem. In just one non-lead hunting season the level of lead in condors, which had become quite critical, all but disappeared. However, the quantity of lead occurring naturally has not changed, therefore it's pretty much a given that lead bullets were the culprit.

Wolves aren't new to moose in northern MN. DNR will figure it out with real science, no innuendo.

This is going to be off topic so skip it to continue reading about wolves causing a moose population crash.

Honker I use Barnes copper bullets. I bought them thinking lead was a no brainer.Then I ran into some articles and started digging. Almost everything you read in newspapers or Mother Jones is going to be from a certain perspective, and the other side of things never seems to get heard, despite winning time and again in court. Because of the science.

A few years ago a physician in N Dakota showed Xrays of donated meat with lead in it. Big to do. A halt on all donated meat in the state. Big study by our Center for Disease Control. Blaring headlines that there were elevated levels of lead in the blood of people and their families who eat game compared to the control population in N Dakota. The horror.

The physician is on the board of some raptor organisation. Turns out the elevated levels of lead are still far below the national average. If you eat game in N Dakota you have less lead in you than if you live in a big city on either coast and don't eat game. These are the findings of our Center for Disease Control, who really aren't in the pocket of the NRA. They don't know how little lead is harmful, and they wont' recommend any lead bullets, but I will recommend you don't live in big American cities.

You'd be safer moving to the countryside than switching to unleaded bullets.

Acid rain frees up naturally occurring lead in the ecosystem. The type of lead in bullets is very difficult to get into your system. Unless maybe you have a gut that ingests tiny BBs of lead to help grind up food and digest them with acids like ducks and geese.

Our National Forest Service has done extensive testing looking for leaching at shooting ranges too.

I've changed my mind on lead. I'll probably be switching back to Noslers. The Barnes hang together too much, I want something that's going to blow up a little.

Notice too that the orgs bringing the lead suits against our govt are the weird ones, not main stream environmentalists.

Here in AZ the use of lead bullets on the Strip and Kaibab has been part of an optional hunter initiative. There is proof that condors are dyeing from lead poisoning. it has yet to be discovered if it is due to bullets, mining, water contamination or other causes. BUT there is evidence that the birds have consumed bullet fragments. which can cause lead poisoning. So there has been an almost universal choice of hunters to use non lead rounds in condor areas. It might not help but it can't make things any worse. I, like many others I know who hunt and camp on the Kaibab/The Strip would rather see these magnificent birds then shoot lead bullets. If it is possible to save a bird by not shooting lead it is worth it in my book.

On the argument of the moose population decline wolves can definitely a major factor. Wolves are the major natural predator of moose. Most moose that are killed are younger than 3 years or older than 8. The death of young moose can really hurt a population especially when 3 year olds are the adolescent populations. Cows may also take a year off in between raising calfs. There is also evidence that defenses moose have to ward off wolves are learned not instinctual and in areas where wolf numbers are rebounding this can be detrimental to moose numbers because hunting is instinctual for wolves. Also a single wolf pack can double in a few year while moose numbers grow much slower. With wolf numbers increasing and needing more food (moose) prey number are sure to drop.

OHH - Perhaps your right about female moose defending their calves. I'm not as familiar with moose behavior and biology as I am with whitetails, though they do intrigue me. Wolves also intrigue me, and although deer are a much more abundant prey species, wolves tend to prefer larger prey species. Wolves are a pack hunting animal, therefore the energy return on investment must be high so the entire pack will have enough to eat. In fact, if you look at the entire map of current wolf existence, you will see that they only persist in areas where large prey species occur in abundance (moose, caribou, elk, bison, etc). If they were a more solitary animal, such as the coyote, then deer might be more of a menu option. If you look at range maps of wolves and moose in Minnesota, you will see that moose and wolf home ranges within that state are nearly identical. Since wolf populations throughout the US are currently higher than in the recent past, it is hard to ignore that wolf predation may be a piece in this population reduction puzzle. I'm not saying it's the soul driver of the decline, just a piece of the puzzle.

Hopefully MDNR will tease apart the various factors driving this moose population decline in the upcoming years.