Los Banos Rotary Club History
Seth Gordon Tells Of State Fish and Game

"I am not concerned in the maintenance of enough fish and game in California to insure a daily limit for every man and woman that sets foot afield . . .but I am concerned with the effort to propagate and perpetuate a supply sufficient to attract Californians to their great outdoor wonderland. And I am anxious that our kids grow up to enjoy the benefits of a clean, healthy, outdoor life of hunting and fishing."

The above statement is the philosophy and thinking of Seth Gordon, director of California's Department of Fish and Game, as he expressed it Tuesday noon in a talk before the Los Banos Rotary Club.

Emphasizing that California's fish and game effects not only the 1,800,000 persons who actually fish and hunt, but also, indirectly, the economy and business of practically every one of California's 12 million people, Gordon stated that future planning by the Department should be aimed not at today's 12 million people, but in anticipation of the 20 to 25 million people who will be residents of this state within the next 15 or 20 years.

Reviewing the work of the Department since its reorganization in 1951, and particularly the progress and expansion in facilities made possible by the state aid funds provided through pari-mutuel funds, Gordon said the Department has spent some 4 ½ billion dollars in construction of new fish hatcheries since 1951, and an equal amount in development of waterfowl management areas. This year, he said, a million and a quarter pounds of catchable size trout will be released in California's mountain streams, mostly streams that are easily accessible by car. In addition the Department last year planted 3 ½ million fingerling trout in 687 mountain lakes, mostly by plane. He praised the use of the airplane in making such plantings, and of the skill of the Department's pilot, Al Reese, in handling the plane under the exceptionally hazardous conditions of mountain terrain. The fingerlings are dropped from an altitude of 300 to 700 feet and are unharmed by the fall. Cost of such plantings is less than a third of the cost of planting by the old pack mule method.
Recent experiments in releasing pheasants by plane have also proven successful. Gordon said, with releases being made as low as 100 feet to prevent the birds from scattering over too wide an area. A plant of some 200 birds will be made on the west side this week; mostly hens that have completed a laying season at the state game farm.

Regarding waterfowl management, Gordon said that negotiations are still underway for purchase of a proposed waterfowl management area in the Mendota vicinity, with several prospective sites under consideration.
In answer to a question by one of his listeners as to the mud hen situation today, Gordon said the special open season on this bird following the last duck season was not as successful as expected, mostly because hunters have not learned to appreciate the birds from the standpoint of shooting or as a table delicacy. A new program aimed at reducing the mud hen population on the Pacific Coast is expected to be submitted for approval of hunters and agricultural interests next fall. Gordon reminded that there were some six million ducks, coots, geese and brandt in this state last January, or about 60 per cent of the entire waterfowl population of the Pacific flyway, and stated that the best safeguard against crop depreciation is increased provision for adequate resting and feeding grounds for this migrant population that comes into the state each winter.

Analyzing the present day cost of fish and game management in the state, Gordon said that the total estimated budget for the year ending June 30 is $7,807,806.00, practically the same as the operating budget for the San Francisco Fire Department. Of this, about 55 per cent is being spent for inland fisheries, 30 per cent for protection and enforcement, 14 per cent for marine fishering, and 23.7 per cent for game management. Of the receipts, approximately 55 per cent is received from fishing licenses, 34.8 per cent from hunting licenses, 6.7 per cent from taxes on commercial fish canneries, 2.2 per cent from the state's share of fines levied for game violations and 1.6 per cent from other sources.

The speaker was introduced by B. A. Wilson, local Rotarian and past president of the Los Banos Sportsmen's Association.

May 21, 1954

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