8 REPORT OP BOARD OP PISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 



the Forum building in Sacramento. District management adds to the 

 cost of administration but, in the Board's opinion, greatly increases 

 efficiency. It will probably be found necessary within the next two 

 years to further divide the northern part of the State. 



PROPERTIES. 



At the request of the State Controller an inventory of the State's 

 property in the care of the Board was taken on June 30th of the present 

 year. A skeleton inventory that will be found elsewhere in this report 

 shows the total value of property under appropriate headings. 



PEACE OFFICERS. 



It should be plainly stated at this time that the enforcement of the 

 fish and game laws of the State has been left almost entirely to the 

 Board, except in those communities and counties so fortunate as to 

 possess public officers alive to their responsibilities and to the value of 

 assisting in the saving of one of the State's most important assets. 

 The Board has received and appreciated the endorsement and support 

 of many police, prosecuting, and judicial officers in the State and 

 expresses this criticism with the greatest regret and the knowledge that 

 it will cause some ill feeling and friction. The property of the people 

 is at stake, however, and we feel that we would be recreant to the trust 

 imposed upon us if we did not call attention to what we have learned 

 to be a real evil. 



Many fish and game officials object to any cooperation between game 

 wardens and peace officers, arguing that no one but a specialist is 

 competent to act in work that is so peculiarly a specialty as fish and 

 game wardenship. The argument does not seem a sound and sufficient 

 one, although we must grant that the best work to be done by game 

 wardens can only be done by officers specially and thoroughly trained 

 in the ways of fish and game, and of fishermen and hunters. 



FOREST SERVICE CO-OPERATION. 



The Board wishes to speak of the splendid assistance it has received 

 from the United States Forest Service, under the direction of District 

 Forester Coert Du Bois, ably assisted by the supervisors of the nineteen 

 national forests (or forest reserves) in the State. Upon the recom- 

 mendation of Mr. Du Bois and the supervisors, the Board has deputized 

 over three hundred forest officers, or "rangers," and knows that 

 splendid work has been accomplished by them. 



An efi^ective cooperation between the two departments is made pos- 

 sible only by a system of direct supervision, by chief forest deputies on 

 each forest, devised by Mr. Du Bois. Through it the Board is relieved 

 cf the necessity of issuing instructions to and receiving reports from 

 over three hundred active men, who undoubtedly are more efficiently 

 and satisfactorily directed by their own chiefs. Each chief forest 

 deputy files a special report with the head office of the Board on the 

 first day of January and on the first day of July of each year, in addi- 

 tion to keeping up a more or less regular correspondence. 



