REPORT OF EXECUTIVE OFFICER. 



Honorable Board of Fish and Game Commissioners 

 of the State of California, 



San Francisco, California. 



Sirs: On January 18, 1926, the Fish and Game Commission com- 

 menced its reorganization, and it might not be amiss to state the facts 

 leading up to the change. 



On May 5, 1925, Commissioner George H. Anderson resigned and 

 Governor Richardson appointed Isadore Zellerbach of San Francisco 

 to fill the vacancy. On December 1, 1925, Frank M. Newbert, for many 

 years president of the Board of Commissioners, severed his connection 

 with the Commission. Mr. Newbert throughout his term of office cheer- 

 fully devoted a large portion of his time to the Commission and origi- 

 nated numerous conservation measures. During his incumbency the 

 Commission grew from a small organization to one with many employees 

 and manifold duties. 



Judge Ralph H. Clock of Long Beach was appointed by Governor 

 Richardson to take Mr. Newbert 's place on the Commission. On Decem- 

 ber 7, 1925, Mr. Zellerbach was elected president of the board. On 

 December 31, 1925, the then executive officer, George Neale, resigned. 



Prior to this time the patrol of the state had been divided into three 

 main subdivisions, one centering out of Sacramento with the executive 

 officer in particular charge, one out of San Francisco and one out of 

 Los Angeles. The wardens in each of these districts were accountable 

 to a chief deputy in the district office functioning under the resident 

 Commissioner. In addition there was a separate patrol, both land and 

 water, under the Department of Commercial Fisheries, responsible 

 directly to the Commercial Fisheries' office in San Francisco. The main 

 patrol activities of the Commission were thus divided into three separate 

 patrol districts. There were two other departments of the Commis- 

 sion — the Department of Commercial Fisheries and the Department of 

 Fish Culture. The operation and supervision of screens in irrigation 

 canals and fish ladders over dams were under the Department of Fish 

 Culture. Pollution problems were handled in tidewaters by the Depart- 

 ment of Commercial Fisheries, and in fresh water by the Department 

 of Fish Culture, or by one of the three district offices of the Commis- 

 sion. The water patrol of the Commission in tidewater and on the 

 ocean was under the Department of Commercial Fisheries, and the fresh 

 water patrol in the upper Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers was under 

 the Sacramento district office, without any relation or cooperation 

 between the two patrols and under an arbitrary division of territory. 

 Each of the three district patrol offices of the Commission was a separate 

 entity, self-governed, and responsible solely to the Commissioner resi- 

 dent in that district. 



On January 18, 1926, the Board of Commissioners met and appointed 

 the present executive officer upon a program calling for an entire reor- 

 ganization of the Commission. It was determined that the Commission 

 should function as a business concern, with a similar form of manage- 

 ment, centering all responsibility exactly where it belonged; that the 



