The National Park Service has set a goal of eliminating lead from fishing and hunting gear by 2010.

Acting Park Service director Dan Wenk announced the goal Wednesday in Washington. Fragments of lead bullets are suspected to contaminate scavenger birds, like ravens and eagles, and lead used as fishing weights could poison waterfowl and other species.

New regulations would have an effect in Grand Teton National Park, where hundreds of hunters kill elk every fall during an annual elk reduction program. Yellowstone National Park already has restricted the use of lead for fishing weights and lures; the initiative could extend restrictions to Grand Teton.

Lead is a toxin and studies — some from Jackson Hole — have associated bullet fragments with increased lead in the blood of predatory and scavenging birds. California and Arizona have recently implemented mandatory and voluntary bans, respectively, on lead ammunition to help California condor recovery, Wenk said.

A firearms group was quick to condemn the action.

“The National Park Service’s decision is arbitrary, over-reactive and not based on science,” Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in a statement. His group is a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry.

“Studies show that traditional ammunition does not pose a health risk to humans, or wildlife populations as a whole,” he said.

The Park Service is grappling with another firearms issue — whether to allow parks visitors to carry concealed weapons as allowed by permit elsewhere. While the Bush administration implemented new rules allowing concealed weapons, the Obama team is reviewing those in a growing skirmish pitting Second Amendment advocates against conservationists.

In announcing the lead goal, Wenk said a ban would extend to rangers who put down wounded or injured animals. Lead makes up the interior of most bullets because it is soft and mushrooms upon impact to create a larger wound. Adequate substitutes to lead-core bullets exist, Wenk said.

Waterfowl hunters have already made the switch. Federal regulations ban lead shot when hunting ducks and geese, but substitute metals can be as much as 10 times as expensive.

Jackson Hole News&Guide Outdoors columnist Paul Bruun said he wouldn’t expect a drop in performance from bullets made from substitute metals. At issue will be convenience and cost.

Rifles need to be sighted according to a particular ammunition, and switching from lead to a substitute should include a session at a shooting range to ensure accuracy, he said. Those who load their own ammo also would be inconvenienced, he said.

“I think where you’re going to lose is going to be in your pocketbook,” he said.

On the other hand, taking down an elk should be managed with a minimum of bullets.

“We’re not talking an Argentine duck shoot here – 1,000 shots a day,” he said.

“It’s a popular whipping boy,” Bruun said of lead. “There’ll be a lot of squawking.”