FORTY-THIRD BIENNIAL REPORT 



47 



FUR RESOURCES 



Although not widely known, California still has a 

 sizable and valuable fur resource. During the past 

 biennium 1,851 fur trappers were licensed and took 

 199,000 fur-bearing animals with an estimated value 

 of 1196,000 for raw furs. Inasmuch as trapping is 

 closely linked with market demand, about 90 percent 

 of the animals were muskrats. Current fashions result 

 in demand for the so-called short hair varieties such 

 as muskrat, mink and river otter, and trapping effort 

 is largel\- directed toward these species. Conversely, 

 such abundant species as gray fox, raccoon, bobcat 

 and coyote have little value, and are virtually unused 

 on the present fur market. 



Cooperative Hunting Program 



For the past two years there has been a steady up- 

 swing in the department's cooperative pheasant pro- 

 gram, from the standpoint of number of co-op areas, 

 acreage involved, shooter capacity, number of hunters 

 using the areas, number of pheasants bagged, and per- 

 centage of hunter success. 



Since the program was initiated in 1949 by action of 

 the Legislature, it has seen a steady grow th in popular- 

 ity as a means of providing shooting for the unat- 

 tached pheasant hunter. Crux of the program is 

 agreement between private property owners and the 

 Department of Fish and Game whereby the owner 

 allows public hunting on his propert\' under the reg- 

 ulation and supervision of the department. Permits are 

 issued at checking stations to the hunters on a first 

 come, first served basis. Cooperative areas are patrolled 

 by department personnel to insure compliance with 

 the agreement and with the regulations. 



By the 1953 season a total of 142,500 acres of land 

 was opened in 18 cooperative areas from Firebaugh 

 in Fresno County in the south to McArthur in Shasta 

 County in the north. That year 72,841 hunters, or 

 about one-fourth of the total, were accommodated, 

 and 30,698 pheasants taken. Of these co-op areas, 16 

 were free to the public, and two were charge areas, on 

 which no more than |2 daily can be charged for the 

 hunting privilege. 



For a complete listing of areas, number of hunters, 

 and hunting success, see Table 31, Appendix. 



Pheasant Hunting on Waterfowl Areas 



An innovation during the biennium was opening of 

 certain waterfowl management areas to pheasant hunt- 

 ing. In 1953 Gray Lodge provided shooting for 1,586 

 hunters and a bag of 872 birds; Los Banos, 215 hunters 

 and a bag of 80; Grizzly Island, 147 hunters and a bag 

 of 85; and Honey Lake, 838 hunters and a bag of 369 

 birds. 



Grizzly Island and Los Banos hunting was set aside 

 for juveniles, 16 and under, who were accompanied by 

 adults. 



WATERFOWL MANAGEMENT AREAS 



California is justly proud of the quality of shooting 

 on its public waterfowl hunting areas, which have 

 continued to expand during the past biennium. Ex- 

 amples of this are the average bag per hunter of four 

 birds at Gray Lodge, Butte County, and 3.5 birds at 

 Grizzly Island, Solano County, better than reported 

 from any other public shooting ground in the United 

 States. Four new areas were added during the bien- 

 nium, including Gray Lodge, Sutter National Refuge, 

 San Luis Wasteway, and Los Banos. Sutter Refuge is 

 in Sutter County, and the latter two are in Merced 

 Count)'. Another factor in the expansion was the addi- 

 tion of the first cooperative waterfowl hunting area, 

 the Welch area in Colusa County. Additional shooting 

 w as provided by leasing at low cost 5,000 acres known 

 as the Napa Marshes unit from the Leslie Salt Com- 

 pany. These units, covering 24,775 acres in 1953, 

 brought shooting to 37,000 hunters who bagged 98,201 

 waterfowl. These figures do not include the take at 

 Napa iMarshes, where no checking stations were main- 

 tained for accurate records. However, 1,650 permits 

 for use of the area were sold. 



Public shooting areas are of three main types: state 

 land such as Gray Lodge and Grizzly, Lea Act lands 

 owned by the Federal Government with the hunting 

 supervised by the State, such as Sutter and Colusa 



GROWTH OF PUBLIC SHOOTING PROGRAM 

 PHEASANT COOPERATIVE HUNTING AREAS 



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1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 



HUNTING SEASON 



