22 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



REPORT OF VOLUNTEER DEPUTIES 



By Walter R. Welch, Captain of Patrol, in charge 



Under the provisions of section 642 of the Political Code, which 

 section defines the duties of the Fish and Game Commissioners and 

 provides that they may appoint deputies, with or without pay, the 

 Fish and Game Commissioners have maintained in the game fields of 

 the State during the past two years about 625 men who have volun- 

 teered their services as game wardens for the further protection of fish 

 and game and the enforcement of the fish and game laws. About 325 

 of these deputies are bonded to the State in the amount of $2,500 each. 

 Their appointments are sponsored by bona fide fish and game protec- 

 tive associations or clubs. Another 300 of these deputies, who are also 

 Federal forest rangers, are sponsored by the United States Forest 

 Service. 



A brief summary of the activities of these "volunteer deputies," 

 compiled from their monthly reports, indicates that during the past 

 two years, upwards of one million miles of game fields, streams, bay 

 shore and coast line were patrolled and that they checked 39,913 

 angling licenses, 17,969 hunting licenses, 6371 deer tags, and made 

 and assisted in making 505 arrests for violations of the fish and game 

 laws. In these cases fines in the amount of $13,928 were imposed. 



In addition to their activities for the protection of fish and game, 

 and the enforcement of the fish and game laws, the volunteer deputies, 

 in cooperation with the Fish and Game Commission in its effort to 

 bring back the supply of quail and to solve the quail problem, have 

 conducted a state-wide campaign to encourage farmers and other land- 

 owners voluntarily to set aside part of their lands as inviolate quail 

 sanctuaries and game refuges. In these areas, unmolested and undis- 

 turbed, quail and other upland game birds will be afforded a chance to 

 reproduce their kind through natural channels from the nucleus of 

 wild birds in the field. 



The effort of the volunteer deputies to set aside land as inviolate 

 quail sanctuaries and game refuges has resulted in the establishment 

 of 1334 refuges. These are situated on private property, and located 

 in nearly every county within the State. 



These sanctuaries contain about 600,000 acres of land upon which 

 there are approximately 400,000 valley and mountain quail, as well 

 as numerous dove, pheasant, deer, tree squirrels and rabbits. 



In connection with their activities for the establishment of quail 

 sanctuaries, and in an effort to further protect quail and other upland 

 game, the volunteer deputies have conducted a system of predatory 

 bird and animal control work. Under this system, during the past 

 two years, they have killed a total of 8868 birds and animals that are 

 considered to be enemies of quail and other game. A list of the preda- 

 tory animals killed includes 84 coyotes, 48 foxes, 126 bob-cats, 1186 

 semiwild house cats, 460 skunks, 66 coons, 35 weasels, 5158 blue jays, 

 582 crows, 337 magpies, 530 sharp-shinned and cooper hawks, 33 



