Peace on the Range

When trespassers and poachers began plaguing DWR property on two Delta islands in the early 1990s, then Department copied a tactic from the Old West — inviting some good “hired guns” to restore peace to the range.

DWR turned to a sister agency, the Department of fish and Game, and enrolled the property (eventually about 1,000 acres each on Twitchell and Sherman Islands) in a sanctioned game bird hunt program.

The Result?
Legal hunting by family groups and youngsters, along with monitoring by wardens, improved security for the property and brought a halt to the trespassing and poaching. In fact, the hunts have proven so successful that the Fish and Game Commission presented a prestigious new award to DWR and two DWR officials who initiated the hunting effort —Chief Deputy Director Bob Potter and Right-of-Way Agency Ron Boeck.

Boeck proposed the idea and Potter obtained approval for its implementation. “This is really a ‘win-win’ situation for both DWR and DFG,” said Bob Potter, DWR’s Chief Deputy Director.
“The public gain hunting access to some of the best pheasant habitat in the Delta. And DWR, as a prudent landlord, benefits by having controlled, official hunting programs in place, with DFG wardens to monitor activities.”

DWR Property
DWR owns extensive acreage on the two islands as part of its efforts to protect and restore this Delta. Both islands are critical to the region’s water quality because they lie adjacent to major channels where the fresh water from the east mixes with the salt water from the west.

If either islands floods, the rate and area of that mix would increase and saline water would intrude farther upstream. More saline water means poorer water quality, a condition that could require increases in water releases from upstream reservoirs like Oroville. This in turn impacts the reliability of the State Water Project’s water supply.

Working with State Water Project Contractors, the agencies that receive water from the SWP, the Department developed plans for managing the islands to protect water quality and the reliability of SWP supply, as well as to provide habitat and mitigation.

Plans for the two islands also include development of permanent and seasonal wetlands and wildlife habitat, and opportunities to conduct programs to test fish screens and investigate land use practices to reduce subsidence. Already under way are levee improvement projects and other special flood control projects.

The Problem/Solution
When problems with trespassers and poachers on Twitchell and Sherman islands started in 1992, DWR decided prosecution was not the solution; a less time-consuming and expensive approach than prosecution was needed. The officials looked to the islands themselves for the answer. Sparsely populated and heavily agricultural, both offer excellent game bird hunting habitat, especially in their grain and corn fields.

“I felt we needed a better way to police this trespass problem and the poaching problem,” recalled Boeck, property manager (see sidebar) for both Sherman and Twitchell islands, “rather than trying to ‘bust’ all these people that were coming onto our property for illegal hunting.”

A hunter and expert pistol shooter, Boeck proposed cooperating with DFG on a limited number of controlled, legal hunts.

‘The word would get out that this was a sanctioned hunt,” he explained. “There would be Fish and Game officials there. It would keep the poachers out, basically, and keep the trespassers down to a minimum.”

With Potter championing the proposal, the hunts started in 1993. the hunts began that fall on a few selected fields. They expanded in numbers and geographic scope in subsequent years.
“We haven’t had a poaching problem since on either island,” said Boeck. “So far, it’s worked. It’s worked real well.”

DFG Game Bird Program
Fish and Game officials appreciate gaining hunting access to productive pheasant hunting land in the Delta as part of its Game Bird Heritage Program.

DFG Biologist Dan Connelly said the program, begun in 1992, seeks to expand hunting choices in California and offer high quality hunting opportunities.

“It encourages family-oriented outdoor recreational activities,” said Connelly. “It rekindles interest in traditional outdoor recreation.”

The Twitchell and Sherman Island hunts occur on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the hunting season, from mid-November through December. Typically, these include some hunts limited to teenagers or women, demographic groups DFG wants to attract to the sport of hunting.
Persons wishing to participate send in a postcard to DFG. Successful applicants are drawn in a lottery and assigned a hunting date.

Wildlife officials are so pleased with the DWR-DFG cooperative effort that the Fish and Game Commission gave some of the first “Taucher Awards” to DWR, and to Potter and Boeck at a ceremony last August. DWR’s award was the first given to public agency.

In recommending the honor, DFG officials noted that DWR’s cooperation “has created more than 2,000 public hunter opportunities” during a four-year period, adding: “These public hunts have provided some of the highest quality wild pheasant hunts in the State.”

The Taucher awards recognize agencies and individuals who have made a significant contribution to promoting hunting opportunity in California. The awards are named in honor of Albert C. Taucher, a Long Beach sporting goods dealer, hunter and longtime member of the California Fish and Game Commission. Taucher served as a member of the Commission from 1983 until his death in 1994.

Persons wishing more information about the Game Bird Program hunts, either in the Delta or elsewhere, may contact Karen Fothergill, a DFG biologist in Sacramento at 916-654-7429.

sidebar
DWR’s Landlords: The Division of Land and Right of Way
Ron Boeck is a DWR landlord. That is, he manages the Department’s property as a land agent with the Division of Land and Right of Way. Functioning as the real estate arm of the Department, the Division and its staff prepare property descriptions, maps, exhibits, and deeds needed to acquire, manage, lease, transfer, exchange, or sell lands for the State Water Project or Reclamation Board.

DWR owns more than 4,000 parcels totaling about 94,000 acres—including Sherman and Twitchell islands. Such property is used to build or expand projects such as SWP facilities, provide mitigation areas to offset impacts by DWR projects, gain rights-of way for DWR projects to cross private property, and acquire access to a project site through adjacent properties.

They also survey DWR lands to help engineers design facilities. Others do market research, write appraisals, issue encroachment permits needed to enter DWR or Reclamation Board properties, help people or businesses move from purchased property, and arrange for relocating or replacing facilities such as roads, pipelines, and power and telephone lines.

More then 19,000 acres of SWP land and nearly 18,000 acres of Reclamation Board land are under lease, producing annual revenues of about $1 million. Leased land is predominantly used for farming, although such diverse groups as windsurfers and dog trainers also lease DWR properties.