HUNTING -- Starting this season, hunters are required to use non-toxic shot in their ammunition while hunting any type of birds at 29 pheasant release sites in Eastern Washington.

Please note if you are a dove hunter who will be looking for birds near these designated areas when the mourning dove season opens Thursday.

The first state-land non-toxic shot requirements in Eastern Washington were enacted last year near Pasco, where hunters of pheasants, quail and partridge as well as mourning doves in three units of the Sunnyside-Snake River Wildlife were no longer are allowed to use lead shot.

This year’s East Side restrictions at pheasant release sites are the latest in the state’s phase out of lead for hunting and fishing uses.

It was a federal rule that banned lead shot for use in waterfowl hunting nation-wide starting in 1986.