CALIFORNIA OUTDOORS Q&A
What is CDFW’s Role in Handling Oil Spills? Oil Spill Response Q: I’ve been reading news reports about the recent oil spills in the San Francisco Bay Area and learned that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is the lead state agency handling oil spills. How did the department assume this authority? (Dave) A: CDFW’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) was established by the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1990. The legislation came on the heels of two major spills, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, in which 11 million gallons of crude oil was released, and the American Trader spill in Orange County in 1990 that resulted in a release of 416,598 gallons of crude oil.
OSPR works to protect and preserve 3,400 miles of shoreline and 7,700 square miles of state waters from petroleum substances. When a spill occurs, OSPR deploys a team of wildlife officers, scientists and oil spill prevention specialists to manage the state’s response. These responders often work within a unified command that includes federal and local agencies, and the responsible party. OSPR is also the state’s public trustee in protecting, managing and restoring California’s wildlife and habitat after an oil spill.
Disabled Veteran Q: I am a disabled veteran and was wondering if there are any hunts on Grizzly Island in Solano County that I could participate in. (Hal)
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A: The Grizzly Island Wildlife Area has a duck blind reserved for those with disabilities each shoot day during waterfowl season. It’s available via CDFW’s Online License Sales and Services website. If nobody claims the blind one hour before shoot time — it becomes available on a first-come, first served basis to those with disabilities. There is a separate online reservation application process for mobility impaired waterfowl hunters. CDFW and the national wildlife refuges it staffs during waterfowl season have dozens of duck blinds throughout northern California reserved just for disabled hunters via this online application process. Our advice would be to not limit yourself just to the one blind at Grizzly Island. Disabled duck blinds at Gray Lodge and Little Dry Creek — among many others — can shoot really well at times. Here’s a link to all of those blinds along with instructions on how to apply along with other entry procedures once the waterfowl season rolls around in the fall: wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/ Waterfowl/Disabled-Access. It would also be a good idea to give the staff at Grizzly Island a call to see just how popular the mobility impaired duck blind is, how it shoots and whether your chances are good at accessing it without a reservation. Grizzly Island staff can be reached at (707) 425-3828. While Grizzly Island hosts some limited, big-game hunts each year — for tule elk in the fall through CDFW’s Big Game Drawing and for wild pig in the spring on its Joice Island Unit through a separate, online drawing — there are no special, mobility-impaired offerings here. As a disabled veteran, however, you may qualify for CDFW’s Disabled Veteran Reduced Fee Hunting License, which is available at a significant dis-
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