Reminder: California Department of Fish and Wildlife to Hold Saturday, July 19, Public Workshop on Implementation of Lead Ammunition Ban

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will hold a public workshop Saturday, July 19 to discuss the implementation of the newly expanded ban on the use of lead bullets for hunting throughout California.  The CDFW workshop will be held at the Community Room at City Hall, 777 Cypress Ave. in Redding from 7-8:30 p.m.  Following the presentation, hunters and other interested parties will be able to comment and provide input.

Last year Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill (AB) 711, which requires the California Fish & Game Commission (Commission) to adopt regulations to ban the use of lead ammunition for all hunting throughout the state by no later than July 1, 2015, and to fully implement and enforce the ban no later than July 1, 2019.

At the July 19 and future workshops, CDFW representatives will explain its proposed plan to implement the lead ammo ban. The CDFW’s PowerPoint presentation is available on the CDFW website.  Although we do not endorse the AB 711 workshops, and many hunters, sportsmen, and other outdoor enthusiasts have been somewhat disappointed by the CDFW’s prior workshops, we believe that we cannot simply avoid the process and ignore these proceedings. Therefore, we urge our members to closely follow these events and attend when it is prudent.  The participation of hunters in the process is necessary to closely monitor the CDFW’s and the Commission’s actions to implement AB 711. Accordingly, individuals and organizations should try to attend, or at least submit their concerns to the contacts referenced in below.

Governor Brown directed the CDFW and the Commission to work with all stakeholders and interested parties to adopt regulations that make implementation of AB 711 as minimally disruptive to the hunting community as possible. But without question, implementing the lead ammo ban will have an extremely negative impact on hunting.

CDFW has been holding AB 711workshops throughout the state, including previous workshops in Ventura in April and in Eureka in June.  After the Redding workshop, CDFW plans to hold additional workshops later this year in Sacramento, San Diego, Fresno and Riverside/San Bernardino.

CDFW anticipates presenting its recommendations to the Commission at its September meeting in Sacramento. Comments submitted to CDFW may shape CDFW’s final recommendation to the Commission regarding implementation of the lead ammo ban.  To that end, comments can be emailed to [email protected] (please use “Nonlead implementation” in the subject line), and correspondence can be mailed to:

CDFW, Wildlife Branch

Attn: Nonlead implementation

1812 9th Street

Sacramento, CA 95811