While hunting for a moose in Montana, Hannah Leonard came across a golden eagle on the ground, its talons clenched and wings drooping. It was right below some power lines, so the grad school student assumed the eagle had been electrocuted.

Leonard started hunting while seeking her master’s degree, joking she has “adult onset hunting.”

“[It] sounds like a disease, and my wallet would probably say that it is as well,” she told a crowd during a Lunchtime Lecture in the Coe Auditorium at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

“At the time I didn’t know about lead-free [ammunition] or anything like that. I just knew this bird was in trouble.”

Responding to advice from her hunting partner, she threw her hunting coat over the predator, mindful of its sharp talons and beak, and the pair took the eagle to a raptor rehabilitation facility.

Leonard is not a wildlife biologist. Rather, she was working on her master’s degree for resource conservation while working her way toward a career in the “dark arts”: marketing.

“I’m a marketing gal,” she said, explaining she was not well-equipped to handle the giant, agitated bird.

The eagle was so emaciated from being unable to hunt for itself, doctors believed treatment would kill the majestic animal. Leonard was told the most humane thing to do at that point was euthanization because it had severe lead poisoning.

“They’re not eating lead paint off of old barns. They’re not huffing gasoline from tractors. What do you mean lead poisoning?” she queried the doctor.

It was then she learned that many eagles and other raptors have elevated levels of lead poisoning from eating the remains of animals shot during hunting season. At the time Leonard had no idea how the emotionally charged event would affect her, but she wanted to continue her hunting addiction. She immediately started using lead-free ammunition.

She made friends with a researcher documenting the effects of lead poisoning in raptors while trying to learn all she could about the epidemic. About 95% of all raptors in the area tested during hunting season had elevated levels of lead in their system, she said.

“It might not be enough to kill them, but it’s something that will accumulate over time.”

She then learned eagle migrations occur during hunting seasons and often look for fragment laden carcasses and gut piles.

“It’s kind of a perfect storm for these guys,” she said.

Leonard kept in touch with the researcher and eventually, after she had earned her master’s degree and was looking for work, he told her about the Sporting Lead-Free organization in Wyoming. They happened to be looking for an expert in the “dark arts” at the time and now she has been with the group for four years.

Sporting Lead-Free is a nonpolitical, educational initiative working to reduce inadvertent lead consumption by wildlife and people through the voluntary choice of lead-free ammunition and tackle. The organization says the members are hunters and anglers passionate about choosing lead-free in the field and share this through on-the-ground pro-outdoor recreation messaging.

The group advocates approaching outdoor enthusiasts with educational materials and demonstrations rather than seeking legislation to outlaw the use of inadvertently lethal remnants of lead ammunition.

“We are 100% behind a voluntary educational approach,” said Brian Bedrosian, research director of the Teton Raptor Center in Jackson and founder of the lead-free group. “We have no interest in going down any kind of regulatory or legislative route.”

Lead in humans

Lead poisoning also affects humans, according to the National Institute of Health. The use and maintenance of firearms is a common and often preventable source of adult lead exposure that is often poorly understood by medical professionals, the institute reported in its National Library of Medicine.

“Health care professionals should be aware of the potential dangers of ammunition reloading and indoor shooting, be familiar with ways to reduce lead exposure during these activities and understand the resources that are available for the management of lead-exposed patients,” the NIH reported.

Americans learned about the effects of lead poisoning when the federal government banned the use of lead-based paint in the United States in 1978. That same paint was used on toys meant for children. Now, no parent would wittingly purchase a toy for their child that exceeded the the legal limit of 0.06% (600 parts per million) of lead in paint. Yet, raptors, including the bald eagle — our national symbol — are dying due to lead in ammunition, Leonard said.

It’s not just ammunition causing the harm, she said. Anglers also cast lead into waterways, often leaving poisonous sinkers and lures behind. Waterfowl hunters using lead shot became such an issue in the 80s that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the use of lead shot on federal public lands for hunting waterfowl. Nontoxic shot is required for shotgun hunting on federal waterfowl production areas, national wildlife refuges, and state wildlife management areas.

It was first phased-in starting with the 1987-88 hunting season. The ban became nationwide in 1991.

Hunters and ammunition producers adapted. Since the ban, manufacturers have significantly improved the quality of non-lead shot, leading to better performance and reducing concerns about birds being crippled by poor quality ammo.

Waterfowl populations immediately began to respond to the ban, which in turn gave hunters more opportunities to harvest waterfowl. However, the debate is still heated.

According to the Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation, any ban on the use of lead ammunition and/or tackle will likely have a significant negative economic impact on a state’s fish and wildlife agency revenue, as well as its economy. The organization is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the rights of hunters, anglers, recreational shooters and trappers across the nation.

It’s a big pot of cash. The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies reported results from a 2022 national survey of fishing, hunting and wildlife watching realized an economic contribution of $395 billion to U.S. economy.

America’s anglers and hunters generate more than $1 billion in excise taxes annually that support state conservation programs. Federal taxes on  hunting, shooting and fishing equipment and boat fuel returned to the states represents a significant portion of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s annual budget. The department spends about $100 million a year, not only on the administration and enforcement of outdoor sports, but also on conservation efforts for all nongame species.

Some of those species are classified as species of concern, threatened or endangered by the Fish and Wildlife Service — and the listing of others for protections under the Endangered Species Act could be crippling to the Wyoming economy.

Education, not regulation

Sporting Lead-Free believes the issue should be solved though education, rather than regulations.

“We want to make sure that we’re able to speak the language, talk the talk, and make sure that we are putting our best conservation foot forward in an educational way,” Leonard said.

The nonprofit organization has recently taken their message on a national level.

“We’re excited to expand Sporting Lead-Free. We’re working with several states now, including Colorado, Montana, a couple in the Midwest and Alaska to incorporate with their state agencies as well as other organizations in those states to increase our message and awareness and provide information to them so they can adapt it to their local communities,” Bedrosian said in a January interview with the Tribune.

For more information or to find nontoxic ammo: sportingleadfree.org.