Outdoor Notes : State Gets Nearly $4.8 Million for Fish and Wildlife Projects

California’s share of the almost $100 million raised in 1984 by the Dingell-Johnson and Pittman-Robertson projects is $4,769,752, the Interior Department said recently. Dingell-Johnson concerns fish habitat restoration, and Pittman-Robertson promotes hunter safety and restoration of wildlife habitat.

Funds for the programs are raised by excise taxes on certain kinds of sporting goods. Revenues are apportioned to the states based on a formula involving numbers of licensed hunters and fishermen, and land and water acreage.

For 1985, California will get $2,591,052 for wildlife restoration projects and $425,700 for hunter safety programs from Pittman-Robertson, and $1,753,000 for fish habitat restoration from Dingell-Johnson. Alaska received the largest total share, $5,282,300.

Ray Arnett, director of the California Department of Fish and Game from 1969 to 1975, has been named executive vice president of the National Rifle Assn. Arnett, 60, succeeds Harlon B. Carter, who resigned recently after serving for eight years.

President Reagan appointed Arnett Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in 1981. Arnett is also a former NRA board member and a director of the National Wildlife Federation.

The Fish and Game Commission has voted to reject a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal that would have banned the use of lead shot by hunters at the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges, starting this fall.

The Commission ruled that the sampling of birds studied by the Fish and Wildlife Service, 446, was too small to determine the level of waterfowl mortality caused by lead shot ingestion.

Biologists have argued for years that spent lead shot lying on wetlands bottoms, ingested by waterfowl, causes lead poisoning and significant mortality. Others argue that switching to steel shot causes more crippling of birds.

In a letter to the commission, DFG Director Jack Parnell said: “The latest research on crippling rates of steel vs. lead indicates that steel increases the crippling rate by 42%.”

Colorado’s “Operation Game Thief,” a program in which citizens can report wildlife law violations and receive rewards, may be too successful. Colorado’s Division of Wildlife says rewards have been paid out faster than contributions have been made to the reward fund.

The program began in 1980 and rewards have totaled $140,000 in cases involving more than 400 poachers. The reward fund, however, has dropped to $2,000, officials said.

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Doug Swisher, famed Montana fly tyer, will present a program at the Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers dinner next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Nob Hill Banquet Center, Panorama City. . . . Raahauge’s Pheasant Hunting Club in Norco will have its Shooting & Hunting Sports Fair May 17-19. . . . Arizona’s Game and Fish Commission has approved the use of crossbows for the taking of deer, javelina, turkey, small game, predators and fur-bearers. . . . Don Bullock’s Anaheim Gun Show will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m each day. . . . Long-time DFG fisheries biologist Phil Pister was awarded the Federation of Fly Fishers’ conservation award recently at West Yellowstone, Mont. . . . Don Stroth, Sacramento, won the recent U.S. Bass Clear Lake Invitational pro bass tournament and the $18,000 bass boat awarded as first prize.