Steve Merlo: DFG Commission reverses visible fishing license law
| Thursday, Dec 17 2009 06:12 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Dec 17 2009 09:52 PM
Images
Katie Clifton, a 15-year-old Lake Isabella resident, used her archery equipment to kill this buck Dec. 6 in the Bishop area, from 46.5 yards. Clifton won a Big Buck Contest sponsored by The Archery Shop in Bakersfield. Her victory was worth $499.99, which she applied toward a new bow.
This 3x3 deer was shot by Jeremy Alexander, right, who is with his dad, Ty Alexander. They hunted the deer above Johnsondale.
Cammeron Plaster, 26, of Bakersfield took his first bull elk in late September in northern Utah in a limited entry muzzleloader hunt.
Nothing irritated fishermen more than when, several years ago, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to have all anglers display their licenses on the upper part of their bodies while fishing. Called a "total invasion of privacy" by a lot of people, me included, the new law simply went too far while trying to drum up license revenues for the DFG. I refused to wear mine, as did many other people, in a display of civil disobedience toward governmental intrusion into the private lives of recreational fishermen.
License fee income pays for most, if not all, DFG projects, including warden pay, fish stocking and a myriad of other noteworthy and necessary projects used to promote wildlife, habitat and biological management of our resources. Without any doubt whatsoever, the necessity for license income is obvious, but not at the expense of anyone's Constitutional rights.
I'm certain the law made sense to the commission at a time when economic disaster for the DFG and the State of California loomed on the horizon, but they did not take into account the natural aversion of most Americans to governmental intervention in their lives.
I think the original thoughts behind the law were to make certain all fishermen would dutifully purchase licenses through peer pressure and also to ease the work burden on understaffed and underpaid game wardens. It sounded good at the time, but the Commission simply forgot who it was dealing with and has now paid the price for that ommission by reversing the law beginning in 2010.
In a somewhat related matter, hard-working game wardens should get a boost from revenues collected via a new, voluntary (see how the commission has already changed their approach...) "Warden's Stamp." Sold next to hunting and fishing licenses, the stamps should provide some well needed family benefits for wardens that the state can no longer afford.
While other state law enforcement agencies get top pay and bennies, game wardens typically receive far less in wages while doing a job often fraught with danger. Parity for them with the other agencies is not in the cards and many experienced wardens are leaving the DFG in droves to pursue other avenues of employment. No one can blame them.
But sportsmen do need wardens to continue their jobs of protecting our hunting and fishing opportunites and our fish and game, and that's why every one of us should puchase one of the new stamps.
Besides, when a warden is on the cusp from whether he or she will write someone a citation or not, the new stamp may be the difference between an exchange of autographs and a warning. Not that they can be swayed, but I'm not taking any chances.
Hunter safety course
Kern Shooting Sports will hold a hunter safety course on Jan. 16-17, 2010. For more information, call (661) 871-9025. It will also hold an Internet Hunter Safety Course on Jan.18. Individuals must be 15 or older.
Book signing
If you missed my last signing at Russo's Bookstore last month, Borders Books and Music Store on Stockdale Highway will allow me to shamelessly autograph copies of my novel, "Oren's War," at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The book is the perfect holiday gift. Thanks!
These are Steve Merlo's opinions, and not necessarily The Californian's. His column appears every Friday. Write him at merloworms @bak.rr.com.
