By Don Thompson, The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- The state Department of Fish and Game is changing how it manages its game wardens because of a worsening shortage that has left some portions of the state without any protections at all against poachers.
The realignment will phase out some supervisors in favor of field officers over the next three to five years, giving the department more flexibility in assigning wardens where they are needed, said spokesman Steve Martarano.
To add more wardens after a yearslong hiring freeze, the department is on the verge of establishing a permanent joint law enforcement officer training program with the state Parks Department and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection at CDF’s training academy in Ione, Martarano told The Associated Press.
The hiring freeze since 2001, ongoing budget cuts that once threatened to trim wardens’ ranks to 1971 levels, and the loss of wardens to retirement and better-paying jobs since the late 1990s have cut the number of wardens from 402 three years ago to 352 now.
The number had been even lower, and had been expected to drop to about 300 by year’s end. However, the department recently was allowed to hire 22 new wardens to replace about 25 wardens expected to soon depart.
“It’s been this sort of steady decline and, because attrition is not an even process, we had a lot of inequities,” Martarano said.
Eight of the state’s 58 counties wound up with no wardens at all. Some lieutenants were overseeing two or three wardens, others nine or 10. Wardens were restricted to operating within the boundaries of one of six geographic regions.
“They couldn’t respond to something that was in Region 6 even if they were closer” but from a neighboring region, he said.
Under the realignment, wardens will no longer report to a regional manager, but to enforcement Chief Tom Pedersen. They’ll be organized into four geographic districts, plus a marine unit and an oil spill response unit, but Pedersen will be able to juggle his wardens as needed.
“The big goal of this is to get more wardens in the field, not as many supervisors,” Martarano said.
Because of the hiring freeze, the department shut down its warden academy at Napa College this year, after operating it there since 1989.
But now it plans to hire the last 22 wardens who graduated from the academy, after they complete field training this fall. Five of those wardens will be trained at the CDF academy in Ione, where the three departments plan a permanent joint training program starting in 1997 if the umbrella Resources Agency approves.
And for the first time in 20 years, the department is anticipating approval to hire other officers who already have training and experience in law enforcement, for instance with local police departments. Those wardens will get their specialized Fish and Game training on the job, Martarano said, instead of being required to first complete a six-month academy.