A state legislator says he is looking at whether the ban on lead shot for dove hunting approved by the state Natural Resources Commission is legal. The commission added the ban Thursday in approving the new dove hunting season. Senator Dick Dearden, a Democrat from Des Moines, is the chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Environment committee. He says the ban will only last one year if it does move forward.

“I can guarantee you next year, come January that rule will be rescinded, it is absolutely positively wrong, they snuck it through at the last minute,” Dearden says. Dearden says it appears right now there would be no way to remove the ban without throwing out the whole dove hunting law, but he is looking at the options. Dearden says he wants to see the members of the commission who voted for the ban on lead shot to go too.

Dearden says he will fight to make sure “that none of them are confirmed again by the state senate if the governor reappoints any of them.” The dove hunting bill was passed by the legislature after years of controversy. Dearen says the move to ban lead shot was never intended.

He calls the ban “absolutely the most sneaky underhanded thing I’ve seen any commission do in the state of Iowa.” Backers of the ban say lead is harmful to animals and humans and doves are often hunted in specific fields where the lead could be concentrated. Dearden disagrees.

“There are just a few off-the-wall environmentalists that want to ban lead for everything,” Dearden says. He says if there were a danger, the EPA would ban lead shot. The first dove hunting season is supposed to begin on September first.