Outdoor Notes : Parnell Quits as DFG Director; Bontadelli in Charge

Jack Parnell, director of the California Department of Fish and Game the last three years, resigned earlier this week to become director-nominee of the Department of Food and Agriculture.

Pete Bontadelli, chief deputy director of the DFG, is serving as interim DFG director.

Parnell, 52, succeeds Clare Berryhill, who recently retired as Food and Agriculture director. Parnell was a deputy director of Food and Agriculture before coming to the DFG in 1984. His new post is subject to State Senate confirmation.

Bontadelli, 38, was a special assistant to State Senator Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) before coming to the DFG as a legislative coordinator in 1984. Parnell named him chief deputy director last week, before leaving for a one-week vacation

Bontadelli developed a reputation as a budgetary and fiscal specialist with the DFG. According to one DFG insider, “Bontadelli assumed more and more command of operations in the past couple of years. . . . It became clear Bontadelli was guiding a lot of the decision-making in the department.”

DFG sources had no idea Thursday if Gov. George Deukmejian would appoint Bontadelli permanent director. Two other deputy DFG directors, Bob Fletcher and Paul Jensen, were previously thought of as candidates to succeed Parnell.

If a West German small-plane pilot can land in Red Square unscathed, can fly fishermen be far behind?

Probably not. Trout Unlimited of Denver announced this week that it’s looking for “pioneers” to fish for 35-pound Atlantic salmon in the Soviet Union’s Kolvitsa River, not far from Murmansk.

The organization said it has reached an agreement with Rosohotrybolovsoyuz, the All-Russian Union of Hunters and Fishermen, calling for the establishment of a fishing tourism program in the Soviet Union.

Five fishing trips to the USSR are scheduled this summer, beginning in July. The package includes six nights at a fishing camp on the Kolvitsa River and five days in Moscow and Leningrad. Estimated tab: $4,000-$5,000.

The booking agent for the trips is Frontiers International, (800) 245-1950.

Briefly Notes Ceremonies dedicating the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s “Ghost Town Archives” at Bodie in the Eastern Sierra will be held at 1 p.m. June 15. . . . Deadline for permit-tags for Arizona’s 1987 deer, antelope, elk, bighorn sheep and buffalo hunts is June 23. . . . The Fish and Game Commission has halted issuance of new permits for the commercial harvest of red sea urchins, hoping to ease mounting pressure on the species. Export sales of the species are booming. In some Asian countries, urchin roe is a delicacy. . . . The deadline for Nevada muzzle loader deer hunt tags is June 17. . . . Arizona’s Parker Canyon Lake recently yielded a state record channel catfish, a 38 3/4-inch whiskered brute weighing 32 pounds 4 ounces. . . . Showtime: Southern California Recreation Vehicle Dealer’s Assn. Show, June 10-14, at the Long Beach Convention Center. . . . The National Park Service will hold dedication ceremonies for the newest national park, Great Basin, in eastern Nevada, Aug. 15 at Baker and Ely, Nev. . . . Edward A. Eppinger, who sold more than 2 million Dardevle fishing lures, died this week at 82 at Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.