California Game Warden deficiency documentary
This Saturday in Sacramento, CA. at the International Sportsmen Expo inside the Cal Expo fairgrounds, a documentary exploring the recurrent battles of California Fish and Game Wardens will debut in building A at 1:00pm.
The severely under-staffed and under-paid collection of California Game Wardens are held responsible for enforcing many of California’s most important environmental and wildlife protection laws.
Below is Sacramento Bee reporter Matt Weisser’s brief piece on the upcoming documentary, followed by a link to an NPR podcast on the California Game Warden situation.
Published: Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009
A documentary on the plight of California’s game wardens makes its world premiere on Saturday in Sacramento at the International Sportsmens Expo.
The 56-minute documentary reveals the challenges faced by the state Department of Fish and Game’s understaffed warden force. California has only about 200 game wardens to protect wildlife and water quality statewide, the lowest staffing ratio of any warden force in the U.S. and Canada. Yet it confronts what may be the biggest illegal wildlife trafficking problem in the nation, with an estimated black-market value of $100 million annually.
The film premieres at 1:30 Saturday in Building A at Cal Expo, which is hosting the hunting and fishing festival.
The film is the product of nearly two years of work by Snow Goose Productions, a father-and-son team of James and Andrew Swan based in Marin County. They followed game wardens by air, sea and land. Along the way, they collected footage including the bust of a 20,000-plant marijuana grove; a terrorist cell; and poaching of abalone, caviar and bear.
Jameson Parker, star of the former “Simon and Simon” television series, narrates the documentary. Following the screening, a panel will discuss economic and recruiting challenges faced by the warden force and consequences to the state’s wildlife. Panelists will include Nancy Foley, Fish and Game enforcement chief; Greg Yarris of the California Waterfowl Association; and Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta.
The International Sportsmens Expo runs Thursday through Sunday at Cal Expo. Daily admission is $15 for adults and $7 for children 13 and over. Children 12 and under are free. There is no additional cost to attend the film screening. For more information, visit http://www.sportsexpos.com
On the link below is an NPR podcast by Sacramento’s KQED Tamara Keith from “All Things Considered” April 12, 2008. Tamara goes along on a household raid with a collection of California Game Wardens while they bust illegal poachers who have been selling fish on the black market. The four and a half minute interview gives great insight into the constant battles of California’s Game Wardens.
NPR “All Things Considered” California Game Wardens, an endangered species
