The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-12
PROTECTION FORFISH AND GAME
DIFFICULTIES GALORE BESET
THE GAME WARDENS.
Screening of Irrigating bitches I'm
practicable Under Present Law
Without Great Expense to County

There are complaints and complaints
nowadays about the violation of the
game laws in Weber county. That the
laws are being violated, no one under
standing the circumstances can doubt,
but there are many who charge these
violations to the game warden of the
county or the deputy state game war
| den, when those officials are not re-
sponsible. Take. for instance, the case
of the county warden, Mr.. Fife. He
receives the sum of $35 per month for
his services. Were he to work 16 hours
a day with a good rig, which he must
furnish at his own expense, he could
not attend to half the duties necessary
to insure adequate protection for the
fish and game of Weber county. This
county is admitted by most sportsmen
to be the most difficult of any in the
state to protect. 1t comprises all kinds
of game within its boundaries. There
are the marches and lake on the west
boundary. where all kinds of water
fowl make their haunts. On the east
is strip of mountain country, much
of it sparsely settled. extending north
and south for 30 miles. Between the
lake and the mountains, too, are
stretches where various kinds of game
are found. Then, too, there are the
Weber and ogden rivers, two of the
trout streams that pierce the Wasatch
range. Many of their tributaries and
most of the artificial bitches leading
from them are in Weber county. There
is
ALL KINDS OF COUNTRY TO BE
PROTECTED,
and it will be seen that one man cannot
attend to the duties of fish and game
warden of this county as they should
be attended to- 1t is true, he is al
lowed six deputies, who are allowed 10
per cent of all fines collected through
complaints made by them. There is no
inducement for these deputies to seek
out violators of the law, and there is
little inducement for them to complain,
even when chance brings them face to
face with undiSputed evidence of the
laws violation. No man likes to get
the i'll will of his neighbors. The COM
missioners have been more liberal in
Weber county than in any other county
in matters of game protection, with
possibly one exception, but still it must
be admitted that the protection is in
adequate, nor can it be made ade-
quate while the present state law is as
it now stands. Take, for instance, the
matter of keeping trout from going
down the irrigating bitches. There is
no doubt but
THOUSANDS DIE EVERY DAY
from this cause. The commissioners
provided some time ago for screening
the bitches at the head gates. Such
screens must be put in at the expense
of the county. Difficulties without
number beset the enforcement of this
provision. Many of the streams have
no head gates, and special frames
must be constructed If the screens are
put in. Furthermore, who will keep
the screens clear from drift and rub
bish?
This function alone would be more
than one man could attend to. There
are many other circumstances which
make the enforcement of the law well
nigh impossible, but the ones given
are sufficient to show that the fault
lies more in the state law than in the
way that law is being enforced.