THIRTY-EIGHTH BIENNIAL REPORT 17 



The second objective can be secured by: (a) Providing on the 

 shooting grounds food and liabitat tliat will successfully compete with 

 the surrounding agricultural lands. ( b ) Maintaining, through hunting, 

 a waterfowl population level conunensurate with the available food and 

 habitat. 



Methods 



Methods of land acquisition do not require discussion here. 



Plans for operation and administration of public shooting areas must 

 be carefully considered. There is little practical experience from wliich 

 to draw information. Public shooting grounds operated by the U. S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service are, in the main, not comparable to conditions 

 that must be met in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valleys. Large com- 

 mercial clubs furnish the most comparable conditions, but since their 

 objectives are confined to furnishing reasonably good shooting and mak- 

 ing a profit, much of their methods are not applicable. 



Subsequent to acquisition of suitable lands the operations to be 

 considered are: (1) Engineering development; (2) Food crop plan- 

 ning, planting, and management ; (3) Administration of the hunting. 



Engineering Development 



A reasonabh' detailed topographic survey is the first requirement. 

 From this data the plan of ditches, dams, and other water control struc- 

 tures can be formulated. In the completed development, water area 

 should approximate one-third of the total. 



Under California conditions it is doubtful that all water areas can be 

 maintained continuously. However, as much water area as possible 

 should be maintained at constant level in order to promote aquatic vege- 

 tation and minimize the possibility of botulism epidemics. 



Water distribution and control structures should be simple to operate 

 and of durable construction. In times of water shortage it should be 

 possible to drain higher ponds, successively into lower ones, in order to 

 retain optiumum conditions in at least the lowest structures. 



Engineering and development costs will vary with the terrain and 

 it will not be possible to obtain the optimum balance of one-third water, 

 two-thirds land for reasonable cost at all points. On the most suitable 

 terrain these costs should not exceed $10 per acre, but over all it will be 

 safer to allot a cost of $15 per acre for this purpose. 



Water Supply and Cost 



Adequate water supply is the primary necessity for waterfowl 

 developments. In certain localities Avater rights appurtenant to the 

 lands or agricultural drainage waters may provide this necessity at little 

 or no expense. In considering the over-all plan, it will be more practical 

 to assume that all water must be purchased at prevailing agricultural 

 rates. 



Rice growers commonly obtain water for $1.25 per acre-foot, and 

 this figure is here accepted as the probable average cost for the entire 

 project. It is estimated that in order to provide irrigation, to offset 

 evaporation, seepage, transpiration, and other losses, enough water 

 should be provided to cover the entire area three feet deep each year. 

 Since only one-third of the entire area is to be submerged, this three^ feet 

 over-all would provide nine feet per 3'ear for the pond area. This amount 



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