Outdoor Notes / Pete Thomas : All Isn’t Well With DFG, Employee Survey Reveals

A survey designed to learn the opinions of workers in the Department of Fish and Game toward the agency includes charges of criminal misconduct and conflicts of interest, according to a published report.

The survey was made public under a court order obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, which reported Thursday that the documents show employees believe the agency to be rife with ineptitude and poor morale, especially among wardens and biologists.

One of the 498 employees who responded to the internal poll said he has seen several employees violate DFG and environmental laws. He also wrote: “I’ve witnessed nepotism, cronyism and favoritism that rival anything in the pre-civil service commission days.”

The DFG, under former Director Jack Parnell, conducted the survey earlier this year and reported in March that about 40% of its staff had answered.

Under Judge Lucy McCabe’s Superior Court order, the names of the workers responding were expunged from the results.

The documents made up a stack nearly a foot high, the Chronicle said.

According to the survey, employees have been ordered to shoot protected shore birds such as herons and grebes at a state fish hatchery in an apparent attempt to keep them from eating hatchery fish. Shooting non-game shore birds is a crime under state law.

Two workers alleged that their supervisors billed the state for work time they spent on personal interests.

The vast majority of the responses cited breakdowns in communication, a lack of field workers, favoritism in promotions, antiquated equipment, and poor leadership from the department’s regional offices and headquarters in Sacramento.

A two-day hearing, requested by state Assemblyman Gary Condit (D-Ceres) and granted by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, will be held Tuesday to discuss other accusations of favoritism and mismanagement on the part of the DFG.

Duck hunters working the DFG’s Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area at Niland found considerable improvement over recent years, according to Manager Cris Gonzales.

Some hunters, though, experienced a reduction in their take during Saturday’s opening of Imperial County’s first season requiring steel shot.

“Hunters commented that missed shots were common until they got the knack of extending the lead (shooting ahead of the birds) a little,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said 1,351 ducks were killed by 327 hunters on opening day and that 425 were taken the next day by 220 hunters.

The average waterfowl kill per hunter on opening day was 4.17.

Other hunting areas in Southern California experienced fair to good results.

Duck season in Southern California will continue through Nov. 29, with the second half beginning Dec. 7 and running through Jan. 29.

California’s first sage grouse hunt since 1982 took place in the eastern Sierra Oct. 10-11, and although there was a lighter turnout than expected, hunters met with an 80% success rate in both the north Mono and south Mono-Inyo hunts, the DFG said.

According to DFG biologist Vern Bleich, about 220 grouse were shot during the weekend.

DFG field personnel inspected the bird harvest at six roadside check stations and reported the grouse appeared to be fit and the population in good shape.

The Snake River race of coho salmon became extinct last year, according to a report released in July by the Northwest Power Council. The report also said that 22 other types of salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin are also threatened.

These fish are irreplaceable because no other stocks are available that are genetically adapted for the long migration, the council said. According to the Sport Fishing Institute newsletter, the annual Snake River coho runs averaged 1,300 fish 20 years ago, but in 1985 only one coho passed through Lower Granite Dam.

Gary Stephens was fishing at Lake Oroville for catfish recently when he hooked something quite out of the ordinary.

After the fish had pulled out almost all of Stephens’ line, he and his companion gave chase in their boat. After a four-hour battle, Stephens finally brought the fish alongside the boat and landed a 97-pound sturgeon, the first such fish ever caught at the reservoir.

Briefly Lake Poway in San Diego will be stocked with 6,000 pounds of rainbow trout for opening day Wednesday, Oct. 28. . . . The stock of the northern anchovy, which supports fisheries off California and Baja California, is at its highest level in 15 years, according to a recent bulletin put out by the Sport Fishing Institute. . . . The first annual Fish for Fun Day, designed to help publicize the needs of handicapped outdoor enthusiasts, will be held on Malibu Pier today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. . . . John Van Derhoff, casting co-chairman of the Southwest Council of the Federation of Flyfishers, will present “A Look at the World of Flyfishing” at the Legg Lake-Whittier Narrows Visitors’ Center during the San Gabriel Valley Flyfishers monthly meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. For more information call (818) 576-2257.