Subject: [Tweeters] error in Seattle Times Swan story
Date: Nov 23 09:17:20 2007
From: Kelly McAllister - mcallisters4 at comcast.net


Like Wayne, I pondered this a bit. The article says the lead shot use for waterfowl hunting has been illegal for some years and that WDFW believes the swans may be picking up "old" shot. I think the problem (which seems minor to me) might lie in what's not being said which is that it's still legal for upland bird hunters to use lead shot. For this to be the cause of the lead poisoning in swans, however, would require a pretty significant upland bird hunting area (like a pheasant release site) that corresponds with a swan foraging area. I'm sure that any areas that meet these criteria, if there are any, were the first to be investigated by WDFW. So, if WDFW believes the swans are picking up "old" shot deposited before the ban on lead shot use in waterfowl hunting, there's a pretty good likelihood, in my mind, that's what's happening.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia, Washington
----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne Weber
To: ednewbold1 at yahoo.com ; TWEETERS
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 8:07 AM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] error in Seattle Times Swan story


Ed,



For the benefit of Tweeters, where is the error here? To the best of my knowledge, hunting with lead shot in and around wetland areas has been illegal for quite a few years, and the swans that are suffering from lead poisoning are mainly ingesting lead pellets that were deposited into their habitat many years ago.



Not having seen the Seattle Times story, if there was an error about the nature of lead pollution, it would appear to have originated with WDFW, not with the Seattle Times. The Times reporter can be forgiven for accepting as truth information that came from a usually-reliable source (WDFW).



Please elaborate on the nature of the "error", for those of us who didn't read the story.



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net







From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Newbold
Sent: November-22-07 11:01 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] error in Seattle Times Swan story







Hi all,



On Tuesday Nov. 20, two days after James Vesely, editor in chief, wrote a long piece about the lonely job of the print journalist in vetting truth in the news, the Seattle Times printed a story emanating from the Dept of Wildlife on Swans clearly implying that lead was no longer being added into the ecosystem.



Despite this (major?) error, I'd like to thank the Times for printing the piece about Swans thus bringing attention to them and thank the WDFW for caring about them and working to save them.



Thanks all, ednewbold1 at yahoo.com residential Beacon Hill Seattle, WA




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