Recreation
Young waterfowl hunters enjoyed great success and created lasting memories throughout California over the Youth Waterfowl Hunting Days on Feb. 6 to 7.
Every year, several thousand youths statewide participate in this opportunity.
In accordance with federal regulations, the two hunting days are held outside of the general waterfowl season for licensed hunters 15 years of age and younger.
Youth hunters may be accompanied by a non-hunting adult, providing great opportunities for novices to learn and experience waterfowl hunting with a mentor.
Overall, young hunters averaged nearly three birds each on Saturday. Most of the ducks taken were either green-winged teal or northern pintail.
Rocklin resident Jeff Leonard took his 9- and 12-year-old nephews to Twitchell Island on their first duck hunt. He chose to put in for a reservation at Twitchell because the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) offers sunken blinds at this site.
"It was an adventure all of us will always remember," said Leonard. "We only got one duck but the boys missed a bunch and had a great time."
Thirteen-year-old Ben Bateman of Sacramento drew the number one reservation at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge on Feb. 7.
Mentored by his uncle Ken Boquist, Ben harvested a limit of snow geese and a limit of ducks including two banded birds – a snow goose and a gadwall duck.
"This was the best hunt ever," said Ben. "We put out over 200 decoys and the ducks and geese came right in."
All of the CDFW lands managed for waterfowl hunting were open for Youth Waterfowl Hunting Days. These areas range from massive, managed marshlands like Gray Lodge Wildlife Area (9,200 acres) and Mendota Wildlife Area (11,000 acres) to smaller areas like Twitchell Island.
There were plenty of outstanding opportunities for the young hunters. On Saturday, 55 junior hunters at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area harvested 184 ducks and 31 geese; at Delevan National Wildlife Refuge, 50 junior hunters harvested 170 ducks and 67 geese; at Sacramento Wildlife Refuge, 69 junior hunters harvested 200 ducks and 173 geese; and at Mendota Wildlife Area, 42 junior hunters harvested 140 ducks and 16 geese.
State wildlife areas and federal refuges play a critical role in conserving waterfowl and their habitats while benefiting a wide range of native plants and wildlife.
All of the young hunters successfully completed a hunter education course to obtain a Junior Hunting License to participate in the hunt.
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- Written by: California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Saving endangered species from extinction takes a lot of work, but you don’t have to do much to help.
Simply making a voluntary contribution on your state income tax return helps the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) do the heavy lifting.
Just enter a whole dollar amount on line 403 for the Rare and Endangered Species Preservation Program, and on line 410 for the California Sea Otter Fund.
“Thanks to our wise and generous donors, CDFW has accomplished many conservation actions,” CDFW Environmental Program Manager Karen Miner said. “Yet, much remains to be done for a number of threatened and endangered species in California. Additional funding is needed for us to keep making progress. I hope more Californians will donate and our donors will consider increasing their contribution this year, and spread the word to family, friends and neighbors.”
Taxpayers’ donations make more of a positive difference than you might think, because contributions help CDFW acquire federal matching funds, furthering the positive actions that can be done for threatened and endangered species and their habitat.
Among other things, past donations to the Rare and Endangered Species Preservation Program have funded monitoring programs for several endangered species populations, including a very small population of Butte County meadowfoam (Limnanthes floccose ssp. californica) located on the picturesque North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve in Butte County.
CDFW biologists are also monitoring populations of invasive pennyroyal that are encroaching upon the tiny and beautiful many-flowered navarretia (Navarretia leucocephala ssp. plieantha) at Loch Lomond Ecological Reserve in Lake County.
Biologists are analyzing available data on the flat-tailed horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii), a well-camouflaged species that is endemic to the Sonoran Desert, to assess factors that may be affecting the species’ ability to survive and reproduce.
Scripps’s murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi) is another species CDFW is working to conserve, in concert with many partners involved in the Scripps’s Murrelet Technical Committee (affiliated with the Pacific Seabird Group).
The committee has prioritized management actions and is finalizing a conservation plan to help recover this state-threatened little seabird that nests on some of the Channel Islands in Southern California.
The black and white-feathered murrelet is a member of the bird family Alcidae which includes murres and puffins, and the extinct Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis).
CDFW is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and others to develop and implement conservation actions such as disease treatment, captive rearing, reintroductions and habitat restoration for three high-risk species of Sierra Nevada amphibians: the Yosemite toad (Anaxyrus canorus), southern mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa), and Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae).
In partnership with a private land owner, CDFW biologists helped restore habitat for Shoshone pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis Shoshone), a rare endemic State Species of Concern, literally bringing it back from the edge of extinction.
This fish has resumed its place in a desert wetland ecosystem and may be seen in Shoshone Village at the edge of Death Valley National Park.
CDFW biologists also worked with Yosemite National Park to conduct remote camera surveys for fisher (Pekania pennanti), and with multiple partners to prepare a conservation plan for fisher in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains.
The fisher is a rare forest carnivore with dark brown fur, and is related to mink and sea otters.
Donations to the California Sea Otter Fund are split between CDFW and the State Coastal Conservancy. CDFW’s half supports scientific research on the causes of mortality in sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis).
In addition to working on a large analysis of 15 years of mortality data, CDFW scientists are conducting research on little-known viruses, parasites and biotoxins that may be harming sea otters.
Through a better understanding of the causes of mortality, it may be possible to work more effectively to recover the sea otter population here.
The Southern sea otter is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and “fully protected” by the State of California.
The annual sea otter survey conducted in 2015 indicated that the population in California may be slowly increasing, to just over 3,000.
That is a small fraction of their historic numbers and this population is still vulnerable to oil spills, environmental pollution, predation by white sharks and other threats.
In fact, despite the overall population holding steady, the number of sea otters at the northern and southern ends of their range in California decreased in 2015.
CDFW biologists have been able to achieve important recovery milestones and conserve vulnerable species, thanks to California taxpayers like you.
More information about how CDFW uses funds in the Rare and Endangered Species and Sea Otter programs is available at www.wildlife.ca.gov/tax-donation and at www.facebook.com/seaotterfundcdfw .
If someone else prepares your state tax return, please let him or her know you want to donate to the California Sea Otter Fund on line 410 or the Rare and Endangered Species Preservation Program on line 403.
If you use Turbo Tax, when you’re near the end of your tax return it should ask if you want to make a voluntary contribution to a special fund. Click “Yes” and go to lines 403 and 410.
The state has listed more than 200 species of plants and 80 species of animals as rare, threatened or endangered. Money raised through the tax donation program helps pay for essential CDFW research and recovery efforts for these plants and animals, and critical efforts to restore and conserve their habitat.
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- Written by: Editor
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