Trump signed an executive order that seeks to expand hunting and toxic lead use on public lands. It opens two national monuments to hunting: Castle Mountains in California and Craters of the Moon in Idaho. The order excludes national parks. Within 90 days, the Interior Department must allow hunting there of any species not listed under the Endangered Species Act. The same order tells federal agencies to propose changes within 180 days so hunters and anglers can use lead ammunition and lead fishing tackle on most federal land. Lead breaks into fragments. Birds that eat what hunters leave behind swallow them. Audubon says lead ammunition is the leading cause of death for the endangered California condor. Lead fishing weights and lures poison loons too. Audubon counted 124 adult loons lost to them in New Hampshire alone between 1989 and 2011. A 2022 study in the journal Science found that nearly half of the 1,210 eagles tested across 38 states had bone lead levels showing chronic poisoning. But in 1991, the government banned lead shot for duck hunting. And it worked. A 2002 review found lead-poisoning deaths in mallards dropped 64% in the Mississippi Flyway. Restrictions on lead save wildlife. This order goes the other way. Hunters and Republican lawmakers say lead-free ammunition and tackle cost more. At the signing dinner, Trump turned to Burgum about the lead ammunition part of his order and said: "Well, this is pretty good. Well, I never knew this was a problem, Doug. You're going to have to educate me ... Is it better than other ammunition, I assume? Huh? ... I know you wanted it, and I'm here for you." The order also tells agencies to work with states to grow deer and elk numbers, including through "targeted management of predators." Humane World for Animals calls that predator control, where wild carnivores are killed to increase numbers of game species. Grazing is on the order's list of tools too. The House already passed a bill, 215 to 202, that would bar Interior and Agriculture from restricting lead ammunition and tackle on federal land. It's waiting on the Senate. The lead killing the condors devastates me. But the lead killing anything is unacceptable. If lead is the leading killer of California condors, why is the order making it easier to use? Tell your senators to oppose the bill. Link is in the first reply.👇 #DemsUnited