California Waterfowl will once again be advertising youth hunting opportunities on our website for the post-season youth waterfowl hunts.  If your club has any hunting opportunities available for February 4th and 5th, 2012, please consider advertising them through CWA.  California Waterfowl will promote these opportunities and offer your club FREE insurance for participating.  These hunts are a great way to get today's youth involved in the traditions and lifestyles we all cherish so much.

To get your club involved in the Post Season Youth Hunts, call George Oberstadt at (916) 275-0961 or email george_oberstadt@calwaterfowl.org.

The California Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA) and California Waterfowl will moderate a forum for public lands waterfowl hunters on Saturday, January 21st from 2:30-3:30 pm.  Discussion items will include hunter quotas and spacing, sweatline procedures, reservation drawings and the new ALDS license system, wetland habitat management, water availability and other factors affecting flood-up, the distribution of free roam vs. blinds/assigned ponds and other current issues confronting the refuge system.      

Representatives of the CA Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be on hand to participate and field questions.  The first half hour will include a panel discussion of hunt program and wetland management issues, with the second half hour set aside solely for questions and input from the audience.  

California's refuge system includes both State Wildlife Areas and National Wildlife Refuges, and offers a diverse array of hunting opportunities for waterfowl and other game species.  Many of the lands were purchased with federal or state Duck Stamp monies, while taxes on sporting arms and ammunition continue to provide important operation and maintenance funds.  California hunters also contribute significant funding via the purchase of waterfowl hunting applications and use permits. 

This is an excellent opportunity to not only to learn more about how California's refuge system operates, but also make your voice heard on the rules and management of the public area hunt programs. 

While COHA and California Waterfowl annually meet and discuss hunt program proposals with DFG, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local hunters in an effort to make the refuge system as hunter-friendly as possible, it's critical that more individual hunters who use the refuge system and are subject to the hunt program regulations also provide meaningful input.  Please join us in what should be a very lively and interactive discussion.

Click here for more information on the Sacramento ISE Show.

On January 8th, the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) will temporarily shutdown water deliveries to its customers as part of its annual winter canal maintenance activities.  Particularly if dry weather conditions persist in the Sacramento Valley, hunters should be aware of considerably lower water levels on their clubs from mid-January to early-February.   

The annual water shutdown is carried out for necessary canal maintenance purposes but also threatens to leave many rice clubs, as well as parts of the Sacramento NWR Complex, without water during last few weeks of duck season as well as the February junior hunt.  In addition, it can result in less than optimal habitat conditions for waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife.

California Waterfowl and California Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA) have spoken several times with GCID Board members and staff about this issue, and have urged GCID to consider moving back the canal maintenance by several weeks.  However, while GCID has been receptive to our concerns, the January 8th shutdown date will remain in effect for 2012 due to other considerations.

The State Water Resources Control Board recently announced its final guidelines for measuring and reporting water diversions. Click here for the guidelines.   

The new requirements, which were authorized under 2009 State Legislation (SB 7.8x), apply to most water diverters, including duck clubs and farmers who currently flood their land for waterfowl habitat purposes.  Failure to comply with the water diversion measurement requirements may result in civil penalties that carry a maximum fine of $1000 plus $500 for each day the violation continues after 30 days of the SWRCB notification of the violation.

Water diverters will be required report on their diversions on a monthly basis, and may be required to install expensive water measuring devices such as flow meters-which can cost many thousands of dollars when installation and related costs are factored in-unless they can prove to the SWRCB that it is "not locally cost effective" to do so.  Even in that case, the SWRCB may still mandate alternative measuring methods.

For a copy of California Waterfowl's comments on the SWRCB's guidelines (as they were originally drafted), please click here.