16 



REPORT OF THE FigH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



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REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHCULTURE 



The Honorable Board of Fish and Game Commissioners of the State 

 of California. 



Sirs : We take pleasure in submitting for 3'our consideration a report 

 of the operations of your Department of Fisheulture for the biennial 

 period July 1, 1918, to June 30, 1920. 



In previous reports submitted to your Honorable Board, this depart- 

 ment has called attention to the growing demand for trout fry for stock- 

 ing the streams and lakes of the state, due to the ever increasing num- 

 ber of anglers seeking recreation in every section where the sport of 

 angling is povssible. 



With the advent of the automobile and the good roads movement, the 

 way has been opened, for one so inclined, to go in a few hours with 

 the greatest ease from the v'ery heart of our most closely settled com- 

 munities into the utmost reces.ses of our mountain fastnesses. And the 

 city dwellers have gone in a never-ending procession, literally by the 

 tens of thousands, from the opening day in the spring to the closing 

 of the fishing season on the approach of winter. 



Sections of the state, in the most remote recesses of the high Sierras, 

 which but a few years ago could be reached only by pack trains with 

 the assistance of hardy mountain guides and days and often weeks of 

 travel, are now reached in hut a few hours from the main centers of 

 population, by automobiles, over some of the finest highways in the 

 world. There can be but one result from such a condition of affairs 

 and that is the practical destruction of fishing in the majority of the 

 waters of the state, unless the most stupendous efforts are put forth, 

 and at once, to conserve our game fishery resources and to increase 

 the extent of the operations of this department. Every effort has been 

 made within the past four years to keep pace with the demands of the 

 situation, but war and post-war conditions have seriously handicapped 

 us in accomplishing our objective. During the war period it was impos- 

 sible to attempt any construction and improvement work on account of 

 scarcity of labor and materials, therefore, it wa,s not until the spring 

 of 1919 that we were enabled to proceed with our plans for constructing 



