Los Banos Rotary Club History
Tell Of Plans Wildfowl Shooting

Speaking at the Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday noon, Roy Wattenbarger, manager of the Los Banos Waterfowl Refuge, and Bob Reser, superintendent of the State Game Farm here, told of plans being made by the State Division of Fish and Game to furnish good shooting for duck and pheasant hunters this year.

Wattenbarger said that the San Luis Wasteway public shooting grounds, the Merced Wildlife Refuge and the Los Banos Wildfowl Refuge are all being flooded now and readied for the duck season which opens throughout the state on Friday, Oct. 16. The Wasteway will be opened at the same time as the state season, but shooting will not be permitted on the Los Banos and Merced refuges until rice farmers have mostly finished with the harvesting of their crop so as to lessen the damage done by foraging ducks to the unharvested grain.

Wattenbarger said the Wasteway shooting area proved very popular last year, with capacity crowds nearly every shoot day. There were some 3,740 hunting admitted to the area, who killed a total of 6,881 waterfowl, of which 186 were coots and 22 geese. Average kill was almost two birds per man. Wattenbarger said such average area considered very good, considering that a large majority of the hunters were inexperienced and most shot at ducks that were entirely too high.

At the Merced Refuge, he said there was a total of 353 hunters in the open area, who killed a total of 867 ducks. In the adjoining blind area, for which a charge of $5 a day was made, the hunters averaged over 2 ½ birds per man each day. However the blind area did not prove popular with the hunters most of whom preferred to take their chances in the free area.
At Merced, hunters residing within the county comprised 32 per cent of the total patronage, Wattenbarger said; with 15 per cent coming from Fresno county and 11 per cent from Madera county. At the local San Luis grounds, Merced hunters accounted for only 10 per cent of the hunters. Santa Clara county gunners led the list with 22 per cent of the total, closely followed by those from Monterey county with 21 per cent.

This year, Wattenbarger said, there will be a flat charge of $2.00 a day to all hunters. The charge was decided upon by the State Fish and Game Commission in order to at least partially offset the cost of preparing, maintaining and properly patrolling the areas.

Wattenbarger also spoke briefly concerning plans for the opening of the local refuge for pheasant hunting, limiting the hunting solely to boys and girls who have not yet reached their 16th birthday. He said there was a large number of birds on the 3,000 acre refuge, and state conservationists believe it feasible to harvest at least a portion of the crop. Another possible recreational diversion to be afforded by the refuge is the planting of bass in several of the deeper ponds, which will be opened to public fishing probably next year.
Concerning plans for the pheasant season Reser said that more than 5000 young pheasants have been reared at the local farm this year, including some 1400 for the Los Banos Sportsmen's Assn. A good portion of these have already been liberated in cooperative areas locally, and throughout the countryside. Reser said 850 birds, all cocks, are being held until nearer the season opening. Some will be planted immediately before the season opens and the remainder will be liberated in the cooperative shooting area while the reason is in progress.

The men also showed a colored motion picture filmed by the State Fish and Game and showing the operation and success of cooperative hunting areas. Under agreements with the farmer, the state stocks, posts and patrols the farmers' land and in return the farmer permits public hunting over the same land, with the provision that not more than 22 per cen may be reserved for himself and personal friends. Reser said the plan is proving decidedly popular with both farmers and sportsmen in all parts of the state, and he anticipates that the program will continue to grow as the years go by.

October 9, 1953

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