THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 127 

SUGGESTIONS FROM THE FIELD DIARY 
OF THE WARDENS 
Recently the wardens in the employ of the State Game Depart- 
ment were invited to submit memoranda as to the obstacles and 
difficulties encountered in their service and to give any suggestions 
as to how, in their opinion, the administration of the game and fish 
laws might be improved. Most of the wardens have responded, and 
some of them discussed the subject ably and with clear understand- 
ing. Many of the papers are so interesting that we have decided to 
reproduce them in The Sportsman. This department will be con- 
tinued from time to time. Many of the articles, however, cannot be 
printed in full. Others will appear in later issues. 
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By WARDEN I. B. HAZELTINE, Canyon City, Oregon 
On taking over the duties of game warden for my district, which 
territory prior to this time had no local warden, I did not realize at the 
time just what a disreputable character I had assumed in the eyes of 
the residents of my district. It seemed that a warden was looked 
upon by them as being about the equal, socially, with a horse-thief. 
On returning from my first trip over my territory I was certainly 
discouraged with the sentiment I had encountered and was at a loss to 
know just where to begin or how to go about bringing a change. I 
commenced to inquire into the causes as to just why a warden should 
be held in such bad repute and my findings were about as follows: 
The people had not come to realize that game protection was neces- 
sary and therefore considered it an infringement, on their natural 
rights as citizens, to be interfered with in the killing of game out of 
season. Furthermore, owing to their lack of interest and consequent 
ignorance of what the State Game Department was or what it was try- 
ing to do, they never once stopped to think that if the laws regarding 
seasons did not suit their locality they might have a voice in bringing 
about changes through their representatives in the legislature, and, as 
a consequence, many laws were enacted that did, for a fact, work a 
hardship on the people of this section. Also, another thing that entered 
largely into the shaping of adverse sentiment was the popular belief 
that all moneys were derived from the taxpayer, which went to the 
game department, and from there squandered without benefit to anyone. 
But the main reason why the wardens had lowered themselves in 
the estimation of the people was, I believe, that owing to the scarcity 
of funds for the Game Department in former years, local wardens could 
net be maintained, therefore, the special men who were sent out in 
remote sections of the State were compelled to make numerous arrests 
in order to hold down their jobs and for this reason took all manner of 
means to bring them about. In one instance that I have in mind, one 
of these men stopped at a farm house in the game country, got the 
confidence of the host, took him hunting and then arrested him for 
killing a deer out of season. These are some of the things that made 
it hard for some of the wardens in new districts in the beginning. 
I realized that if I was to accomplish anything permanent in the 
way of co-operation with the people I would have to use different 
tactics, and, therefore, at once became a self-appointed missionary in 
the cause of education. I worked continually and explained, as best 
I could, why game protection had become necessary and just what the 
State Fish and Game Commission was trying to do for the benefit of 
