David Cogdill

Nominated by Bill Becher

Modesto resident David Cogdill was elected to the Calif. State Senate in 2006. Prior to being elected to the Senate, Cogdill represented the 25th District for six years in the State Assembly.

As a legislator Cogdill fought to make sure that the millions of dollars in fees paid by California's anglers went to support fisheries.

The state's hatchery system was in a "death spiral," according to Cogdill, whose district included Mono County where money spent by trout anglers forms an important part of the local economy.

In 2005 Cogdill again introduced legislation in the Assembly to allocate one-third of sport fishing license revenues to the hatchery system. Similar legislation was defeated in previous years. According to state law, the costs of non-game fish and wildlife programs should come from general funds, not fishing license revenues.

But the DFG interpreted the law broadly, insisting it spends anglers' money properly and that many programs other than hatcheries benefit the fishing public. Hatchery employees said that the DFG has a bias in favor of allocating money to biodiversity programs and not the hatchery system. One hatchery employee said, "They're promising a Mercedes and delivering a Volkswagen."

Cogdill said his legislation would help "realign" the mission of Fish and Game and get it back to the basics, which he defines as seeing that the license fees provide a viable fishing experience.

In Oct. 2005 Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill 7, known as the Inland Fisheries Restoration Act of 2005, that dedicates up to 33 1/3% of the revenue from sport fishing license sales to maintain a schedule of fish production for the hatcheries based on a poundage per license formula. Under the law $2 million from license fees is dedicated to the Wild and Heritage Trout restoration program and 25% of hatchery production will be converted to native species.

Cogdill was able to bring together both kill-and-keep and catch-and-release anglers to support his bill.

"CalTrout supports AB 7 because it will improve the management of California's wild trout populations and ensure that state fish hatcheries don't have to be closed or cut back,” said Brett Matzke of CalTrout, a strong supporter of the legislation.

"For more than 20 years now, the Department has annually increased license fees to adjust for inflation, making California's sport fishing license the most costly in the nation. CalTrout does not understand why the Department has provided no similar inflation adjustment in over two decades to support its Wild/Heritage Trout Program. We also do not understand why the department is proposing to close fish hatcheries. AB 7 helps restore some sanity and equity to this situation."

For his support of California's anglers, Dave Cogdill should be Californian of the Year.