OUTDOOR NOTES : DFG Adds Plane and Roadblocks in Battle Against Poachers

The California Department of Fish and Game has stepped up the war on poachers by adding a seventh plane to its air force and establishing roadblocks in deer country.

A new twin-engine Partenavia will be used for marine patrol and management work north of Point Conception in daylight and to assist ground wardens in searching for spotlight hunters at night. The plane’s bubble nose will allow observers full visibility below.

The plane, dubbed the Observer, cost $318,000 and will carry an additional $80,000 worth of avionics and air-to-ground radar. It seats six and can remain aloft up to seven hours at a cruising speed of 160 knots.

Although built in Italy, most of the plane’s components, including the 200-horsepower engines, are American.

The Partenavia is based in Sacramento, along with a single-engine Cessna 185 Skywagon and a twin-engine Beech King Air, which is used for aerial fish planting and transportation of personnel. There are three other Skywagons in Long Beach, Redding and Fresno and a small twin-engine Cessna 337 Skymaster in Long Beach.

The smaller planes are used for reconnaissance, patrol and wildlife protection, but only the twins are used for night spotlight operations.

Meanwhile, of the 2,005 vehicles that have been stopped at check stations in Butte and El Dorado counties, seven persons were arrested and 11 were issued verbal warnings for fish and game code violations. The check points were set up along the major travel routes to coincide with the opening of deer hunting season in those areas.

At the Butte County checkpoint, one person was arrested for refusing to stop. He then allegedly became abusive and resisted DFG and California Highway Patrol Officers. He was “physically arrested,” according to the DFG, after a firearm was spotted inside his vehicle.

Butte County inspections also uncovered a doe hidden under a mattress in a vehicle, a fisherman in possession of 39 trout and three loaded guns, and seven deer-tag violations.

At the El Dorado station, six persons were arrested for fish and game code violations--five with untagged deer in their possession and one with a loaded firearm in the vehicle.

Nevada’s Pyramid Lake is best known for its population of Lahontan cutthroat trout, including one that set the world record of 41 pounds in 1925. But the lake is also home to the endangered Cui-ui, indigenous to the reservoir and the source of the longest-running Indian water-rights dispute in United States history.

The lake lies completely within the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. The Cui-ui were once a staple diet of the Paiute Indians, whose name means “Cui-ui eaters.”

Both species became nearly extinct in the 1930s, when diversion from the Truckee River to the New Lands Reclamation Project went into effect and the water level dropped about 70 feet, preventing the fish from getting to their spawning grounds.

The Lahontan fishery was destroyed, but the trout were later reintroduced into the lake and are sustained by federal and tribal hatcheries that rely solely on eggs taken from fish in the lake.

A bill introduced by Nevada Senator Harry Reid last August, seeks to restore the fishery by providing for more inflow to Pyramid Lake during spawning months and by directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop and implement recovery plans for the trout and the Cui-ui.

Trout Unlimited’s South Coast Chapter is urging support of the bill and will sponsor a panel of guests, including Paiute tribal members, to discuss “all aspects of Pyramid Lake” October 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the California Youth Club in Corona del Mar.

Briefly

The Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep will honor Dick Weaver at its annual dinner Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Pickwick Center in Burbank. Weaver recently retired after 40 years with the Department of Fish and Game. Tickets are $30. Information: (213) 256-0463. . . . The same day at the same place, the Safari Club International chapter of Los Angeles will sponsor a symposium on “Hunter’s Rights in An Ever-Changing Society,” starting at 8 a.m. Tickets are $35. Information: (818) 797-1287 or (818) 351-0700. . . . Maggie Merriman and Paul Brown are offering weekend “essentials and basics” in fly fishing through October at Marriott’s in Fullerton.

The South Coast Chapter of Trout Unlimited will work jointly with the Cleveland National Forest personnel to improve and maintain the riparian habitat of Trabuco Creek. The project begins Oct. 28. Information: (714) 846-7608. . . . Herbert Clarke of Glendale has published “An Introduction to Southern California Birds,” with 252 color photos and information (Mountain Press, $9.95 paperback).

Hunting of wild pigs in the state’s Tehama Wildlife Refuge east of Red Bluff will be forbidden during November because of declining numbers of the animals, the Department of Fish and Game announced. A spokesman blamed the decline on a three-year drought that has reduced growth of forage, including acorns. The California Native Plant Society recently called for removal of pigs in some areas, charging that the pigs’ taste for acorns contributes to the decline in the numbers of oak trees in the state.