The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

troutnut wrote:






3. WARDENS ARE UNDERPAID

Blah, Blah, Blah! If I hear that one more time I am going to PUKE! Everyone's job sucks, everyone on the planet is underpaid.


I think you might be missing the point about warden salaries. When folks bring up the fact that warden salaries are low compared to the salaries of other law enforcement agencies they are generally talking about how it's getting harder for the DFG to find wardens because nobody wants to be one. Why be a warden when you can get a job with the highway patrol that pays another 20-25 grand a year and requires the same training as a DFG warden? I don't think anyone ever claims that wardens don't catch more poachers because they're under paid. The low number of wardens in the state probably has more to do with that then salary.

I thought I might share something here.....

Part of my job with Fresno County is to deal with the Fish and Game Propagation Fund. The fund comes from fines generated by violations of Fish and Game regulations. As Neal stated, the fines collected in each County are split between the County and the State. That split is 50/50. The fines are collected by the Superior Court, and deposited into the County Treasury. The County then sends 50% to the state.

So, the County gets its share.

In Fresno County, we have expended those funds to fund Kid's fishing derbys, Kids pheasant hunts, wildlife rehabilitation activities, fish planting in local lakes and to send women to the "Becoming and Outdoors Woman" clinics sponsored by Fish and Game. All of these activities are intended to promote folks getting involved in the outdoors and to preserve/propagate wildlife and encourage sportsman activities.

Because of this thread, I looked back on my budgets for the the last several years. Remember, Fresno County is one of the largest Counties in the State. The crest of the Sierra, to the Monterey/San Benito County line. Lots of hunting and fishing going on here.

In fiscal year 1990-91 the County's share of of fines was $25,638. In 2006-07 our share was $6,456.

Perhaps we have more law abiding citizens, perhaps the fines have gone down, perhaps the population has declined.

Perhaps not so many violations are being written?

Who knows?

Charlie, it would probably help if we all just cared more. I'm sure all the candidates will pledge to do so...

We need more of everything especially good cigars and quality spirits.

Nice to hear from you Dave. Guess we're going bass fishing. Let's go up the Kings too.

CharlieJ

Shawn-

You touched on a larger problem facing law enforcement, and that is the shortage of recruits in general.

So many of our police, sheriff, and CHP officers are approaching or have reached retirement age. Statewide, there are insufficient recruits to fill all the law enforcement officer positions in the cities, counties and state agencies. In San Francisco, our Sheriff's Dept has a low retention rate, because of their pay. They send recruits to the academies, and when they graduate other jurisdictions entice them away with higher pay and benefits.

Everybody wants to hire Iraq war soldiers, but our federal government won't let them go, but thats another issue...

Same problem with game wardens, but even more acute. DF&G is competing with local law enforcement agencies in addition to the CHP. I'd be willing to bet that the State and National Park rangers (other POST certified officers) get paid more than the game wardens.

If outdoors people want more wardens, somebody will have to speak up for them at the legislature.

More people = more water. State, counties and cities like growth, it pays their salaries.
They govern to grow ! The rest of the arguements are about the symptoms.

Mike