California hunting license sales have dropped steadily from 767,149 in 1970 to 273,391 in 2016. A leading cause of this drop is the loss of hunting opportunities and access. To help reverse this trend and to recruit, retain, and reintroduce hunters to the field California Waterfowl Association (CWA) developed a program based upon the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s lottery system for hunting on public lands. Through CWA’s relationship with private landowners, the program has created access to private lands and has been identified as the California Waterfowl Hunt Program. The program has grown steadily over the past eight years and now includes over 40 individual properties encompassing over 50,000 acres. Since the inception, over 6,500 hunters have participated in the program with hundreds of landowners and volunteers providing in-kind services (hosting, guiding hunts, etc.) and access to high quality hunting opportunities to the general public. The program currently hosts waterfowl, pheasant, dove, turkey, and pig hunts. In addition to providing opportunities to the general public, specialty hunts cater to families, youth (apprentice), women, mobility impaired hunters and veterans. Applicants have an extensive variety of hunts to choose from which include access to some of the most prestigious and exclusive hunting properties in the country. Hunt locations range from the Klamath Basin in northern California to San Jacinto Valley in southern California.
In the spring of 2014, through a Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) Grant, CWA acquired 2,200+ acres in Kern County. The acreage is made up of two separate properties known as the Houchin and the Badger Almond parcels and is collectively referred to as Goose Lake. The Badger Almond property is in need of habitat restoration and development of infrastructure before it can be fully utilized for waterfowl hunting, but has hosted successful dove hunts over the past three years.
Since 2014, 939 hunters have hunted on Badger Almond and Houchin. The proposal requests funding to help offset the substantial operating costs of running an upland game public hunt program on Badger Almond. We anticipate 200-400 people will enjoy time upland game hunting as part of the Badger Almond Hunt Program.
The proposed 2017/2018 project will fund a public pheasant hunting program at Badger Almond. We propose a stocking program of 700 pheasants from October through January. We will host 20 hunt days in the fall reaching up to 24 hunters per date. Hunters will be provided with a hunt map on specific hunt zones and past hunter success. During shoot days, hunters will be allowed to harvest dove (when in season) in addition to waterfowl and pheasants. The hunt will be advertised as a combo waterfowl, pheasant, and dove hunt with the main focus on waterfowl and pheasant.
CWA will handle reservations and liability waivers through the well-established CWA Hunting Heritage program. Hunters are chosen through a random lottery process administered by a third party. CWA provides professional staff, including a Hunt Program Coordinator and the necessary supervisory and support staff to administer all aspects of the hunt program, including but not limited to general correspondence, advertising, habitat management, hunting preparation, hosting hunts, accounting, invoicing, reporting, etc. CWA has a well established track record, fiscal policies and procedures to effectively administer and manage this very successful hunt program.
The hunt program at Badger Almond will consist of 20 hunt periods (Wednesday and Saturday) from October - January. Each hunt period will include 8 hunting parties of three (may consist of four hunters if one or more hunters are juniors). These hunt periods can reach more than 400 hunters.