Judson Lake is the most extreme example of unnecessary individual wildlife deaths by lead poisoning from lead shot ingestion occurring to this day anywhere in North America.
Yet, despite jointly committing to a "long-term restoration" plan, the USFWS has now decided for you that Judson Lake is "not important enough" to take action on, so they have "moved on to other projects" and continue to watch the carnage "with a webcam", leaving only a few biodegradable bamboo poles in their exclusion area to deter the defenseless creatures from certain torturous deaths.
Expecting the swans to clean up the US side of the lake is a cruel and repetitively failed strategy. The 2020-2021 experiment produced over 182 dead swans. That's a clip of a dozen dead, dying, drowned, and mauled creatures a week for 15 straight weeks.
Since they already tried unsuccessfully in past years to kill the pond lily with chemicals, the only solution left is to deepen the lake. The fact that Judson Lake spans two countries must not be the determining factor to unethically and irresponsibly just walk away.
"Lack of funding" is not a legitimate excuse for several reasons:
First of all, the cost of a restoration project would pale in comparison to the millions of dollars still being wasted on "mortality monitoring studies", since 1999!
Secondly, public and private dollars from governments, conservation groups, philanthropists and ordinary citizens through grants and donations would come out of the woodwork in a heartbeat.
Moreover, in order to return this invaluable ecosystem to a "fully functioning lake", pools would likely need to be created in various sections, and the underlying sand and gravel removed could be sold to alleviate the cost.
THIS SITUATION IS URGENT!
PLEASE forward this website throughout your social networks, to conservation and environmental groups, to your various government officials, agencies, and to media outlets.
In the same way U.S. government agencies use my photos to promote the use of non-toxic shot, perhaps this website could be used to get lead shot finally banned for upland game and target shooting across the U.S. as we are attempting to do nation-wide in Canada. This one act would save countless millions of similar deaths as "lead poisoning kills an estimated 10 to 20 million animals each year in the U.S." according to the Humane Society of the United States.
Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Ducks Unlimited (U.S.), National Wildlife Federation, and environmental law groups. The world is watching! We have an opportunity to get the lead out, LITERALLY! Together let's secure a safer future for our wildlife and our children. Thank you!
