James Swan, author of "In Defense of Hunting," talks about the game warden crisis in California

James Swan has authored 7 books, including In Defense of Hunting, Sacred Places, and The Sacred Art of Hunting. He has been involved in conservation his whole life, from the first Earth Day to his latest effort, shining a light on the game warden crisis in California.

This is the first of a two-part interview. Read part two: our physical, cultural, and spiritual origins in hunting.

What do Game Wardens do in California?

As in the other 49 states and Canadian provinces, California's 192 Fish and Game Wardens in the field enforce not only wildlife law, but criminal, civil and traffic law, conduct search and rescue operations, deal with "problem" animals, conduct homeland security operations, advise biologists on wildlife populations, do undercover work, respond to toxic spills and pollution, and teach environmental education, including Hunter Education classes. Wardens do all their own CSI work and the Department has an award-winning forensic CSI lab. There is also has a 10-person Special Operations Unit that does deep undercover work in pursuit of organized crime.

Wardens are on call 24/7, work from a home office, and cover vast remote areas, usually alone - on foot; in boats, planes, helicopters, patrol vehicles, on horseback, and snowmobiles. In California, wardens are also Deputy Federal Marshals who may work cases in other states and/or involving federal laws like the Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act.

Other law enforcement agencies do not teach people to use firearms as part of their regular job. All game wardens, in contrast, are certified Hunter Education Instructors that teach firearms use and safety. And in the field, they work with a population that is often carrying firearms. Police officers meeting armed people often is an automatic threatening situations. For wardens, it's just part of the job.

Is it a dangerous job?

Wardens normally work alone, in remote areas, interacting with a population most all of whom carry knives, firearms and/or archery equipment. Back up is often an hour away or more, if anyone is free. Poachers are almost all well-armed, and many are repeat offenders with criminal records. Increasingly, wardens are finding poachers high on methamphetamine that helps them stay awake at night.

Wardens are major players in combating marijuana growing and meth labs on wild lands, which is growing in size and is primarily run by organized crime. CA Fish and Game Wardens are three-times as likely to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty as a CA Highway Patrol officer, who incidentally, makes twice as much per year and has less breadth of enforcement responsibility. Wardens and DEA agents have the most dangerous of all law enforcement jobs. As a result, wardens are better-armed than other state or local police.

Two years ago, three wardens entering a marijuana grove in the hills south of San Francisco, got into a fire fight that left one warden seriously wounded, one grower dead and another wounded.

California is a big state-- why are there so few game wardens?

There are several answers to this question, the foremost being the state's budget crisis, which is impacting state agencies across the board.

A second factor is that the numbers of hunters and fishermen in the state are declining, and since their license fees support the Department of Fish and Game, that means that funding fish and game programs means looking for funding elsewhere.

A third factor is that most people have never seen a game warden, let alone know the scope of important work that they do. The common image is that they just drive around checking the size and limits of fish people catch. Few people know that wardens are the frontline of conservation that help make wild places safe for all outdoor recreationists. This means they get less automatic support when there is legislation pending that affects their work.

Are there special challenges game wardens in CA face that wardens elsewhere don't?

While California Fish and Game wardens have similar responsibilities to their cohorts in other states and provinces, there are three conditions that are especially significant in the work of California's wardens.

a) California has by far the worst ratio of wardens per capita in North America - 192 wardens in the field for 38 million people. Imagine a town of 198,000 with one police officer. Have you seen "Deadwood?" If California had a wardens/per capita ratio equivalent to Florida or Texas, they would have close to 1000 wardens in the field. The warden shortage makes wardens' work more difficult and dangerous, and encourages organized crime to brazenly commit acts of poaching and commercialization of wildlife. Case in point, because of a lack of funds, currently two major ocean patrol boats, the Albacore in Eureka and the Marlin in San Francisco Bay, have been in dock for five months due to a shortage of crew and money for repairs. This has a direct impact on the difficulty of enforcing the recent closure of salmon season and the new Marine Conservation areas offshore.

b) The commercialization of illegal wildlife trafficking in this state has become huge - over $100 million a year. The nefarious people involved include drug dealers, street gangs, Drug Cartels and the Mafia. Poaching sturgeon for caviar; abalone for illegal sales to citizens, markets and restaurants; and bears for their gall bladders, all commonly involve organized crime, sometimes with international connections.

c) The seriousness of drug manufacturing and marijuana growing on wild lands is escalating. We are not talking about some hippies growing a little pot, marijuana groves in CA are large plots commonly run by foreign drug cartels. They are sophisticated, large-scale groves with drip-irrigation systems, laced with fertilizers and pesticides, run by armed people who stay on the premises and commit many other crimes against wildlife and the environment, and who are not above shooting at anyone who comes into contact with their operations.

Over the past decade the numbers of hunters and anglers have declined -- how does that affect game wardens?

In 1907 California had 73 wardens in the field for 2.3 million people. By 1949, there were 194 wardens for 10.2 million people. The greatest number of wardens in the field was in 1999 when there were 280. Today there are 192.

There are about two million anglers and 270,000 hunters presently in California. The number of hunters is down from 750,000 just a few decades ago. Declining license sales means less money for DFG's budget.

As ethical sportsmen numbers decline, unethical ones take their place. What was once a "gentleman's sport," becomes an opportunity for a few bad eggs to dominate public recreation areas and/or exploit them to make money. This makes being in the field more dangerous for all outdoor recreationists, which increases tensions between ethical fishermen and hunters and non-consumptive users, and lowers the quality of experience in the field for all.

One program that has been shelved due to budget cuts is the "Caught Doing Good" program where a warden could issue a "citation" to someone who is doing something positive on behalf of the environment, like picking up trash. Such peoples' names were placed in a drawing for valuable prizes. Rewarding good behavior is a "carrot" which helps encourage good behavior and makes the appearance of a warden less negative.

And with the shortage of funds, it makes funding for warden positions and equipment more and more difficult. Wardens are spending more time writing grants to pay for dogs, binoculars, radios, etc., when they already are terribly short-handed.

Besides just following the law, how can sportsmen help game & fish enforcement?

Four suggestions:

1) In California, use CAL-TIP - a 24-hour hotline to report poachers and polluters - 1-888-333-2258. If your tip turns into an arrest you can receive a cash award. Rat on rats! There are similar hotlines in all states.

2) Last year, as a Columnist for ESPNOutdoors.com, I had the chance to travel to Alaska to cover the Midnight Sun Shootout, an annual sporting clays event hosted by Senator Lisa Murkowski that raises over $200,000 a year to support hunting and shooting programs for the Alaska Division of Wildlife. We need something like that in California to help support the wardens. I have been talking with some people - rodeo and entertainment celebrities, writers, organizations - about creating something like this to help support California's wardens - maybe a pro-am fishing tournament to help throw the spotlight on wardens and raise some money to decrease the need to write grants to fund important equipment needs. Each state could do something like this.

3) Tell your state legislators to support the wardens. Across the US, wardens salaries are generally abysmally low. They deserve better wages, working conditions and more numbers.

4) For the last year, my son and I have been working on an hour-long documentary, "Endangered Species: California's Fish and Game Wardens," which will be done this summer. Get a copy. Share it with friends. You can see a three-minute trailer at: http://www.jamesswan.com/snowgoose/cp.html Contributions to help distribute the documentary to schools, clubs, libraries, are, of course, appreciated.

What makes you hopeful about the future of game & fish in California?

A) The Wardens. It's a dangerous job, but those who stick with it say that they can't think of a more meaningful way for them to help protect the environment. I've worked with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies elsewhere and I have never met a more dedicated and nice group of people. Game wardens are literally "family." Check out the websites for the California Fish and Game Wardens Association and for the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association.

B) Recently a group of concerned citizens formed the California Game Wardens Foundation. Modeled after the 11-99 Foundation that provides financial assistance to California Highway Patrol officers and their families, the CGWF is one way for the public to support our game wardens.

C) Organizations like Sierra Club getting involved. Thanks for asking!