102 REPORT OF THE PISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



REPORT OF THE LOS ANGELES DISTRICT. 



The Ilonorahlc Board of Fish and Game Commissioners of the State of 

 California. 



Sirs: "We are pleased to present the following report of Southern 

 Division activities in tlie cause of fish and game conservation during the 

 l>iennial period closing June 80, 1920. 



Our policy during the last two years has liccn one of steadily increas- 

 ing and ever more detailed frankness witli oui- masters, the public. It 

 has hecn diitatcd with particular reference to the sportsmen and com- 

 mercial fisheries interests, which jointly finance our work through their 

 contrihiiliou of licenses and other special forms of taxation. Never have 

 we lost sight of the peculiarly direct responsibility devolving upon us 

 for a fre(jueut and frank accounting to the general public, as well as to 

 these earlier, but no less certain, beneficiaries of this great trust that 

 has been placed under our charge. 



PUBLICITY. 



We have consistently sought through the ever charitable medium of 

 our generous southern California press, to advise the people, by 

 means of a continuous and systematic newspaper campaign, using 

 widely circulated articles of live news value, written from the view- 

 point of those specially interested, and distributed with all possible con- 

 sideration of newspaper ethics. We have sought to make this service 

 timely, by seeking to diversify it among competing journals and l)y 

 investing it with an individual flavor, giving due regard to style require- 

 ments where known. Such a course has unavoidably involved a very 

 considerable increase in the purely physical part of the work; but we 

 believe the general appreciation shown has more than justified it. 



Today, we believe it can truly l)e said that the public of southern 

 California is not only virtually unanimously behind the conservation of 

 fish and game, but also that it has a better working idea of operating 

 problems and diriiciilties. and is in closer sympathy with our efforts 

 than ever heretofore. 



LAW ENFORCEMENT. 



In a work llie success of which nuist be measured by the degree of 

 cooperation attained on the part of the people who first must be 

 awakened fi'oiii llieii' normal apathetic view to the realization of the 

 value of ( onservation, the importance of such results is easier to under- 

 estimate or to ignore than to embody in cold figures. However, the 

 statistical proof is not lacking. It is to be found in the steadily increas- 

 ing percentage of convictions to prosecutions, aiul in the materially 

 mounting average penalty per conviction. 



