Book came. And then later on, i became a fish and game warden myself. And then i continued writing stories about my generation of fish and wildlife so the book is called the game wardens son. Being with my dad during those years when he was a game warden was like having a storybook childhood. I did things that most kids would dream of. When he started out, he was on what they call marine patrol and his duty was patrolling the channel the California Channel Islands which are fantastic. And theyre anywhere from like 26 miles across the sea like the song says or clear out way out in the ocean. So i got to go on these excursions or these patrols out into the out into the Channel Islands and see see things that mofmente kids would only dream of. There was one particular chapter i wrote about in the book. I called it a trip to the islands where we went out and we took these two National Park scientists from washington, d. C. Out to Santa Barbara island and an at that barbara island had been declared by Franklin Roosevelt as a National Monument years before. It was their job to turn this island back to its natural state because during the previous century, all these these ranchers had come in and brought in all this exotic animals. And they brought in cats and goats and pigs. And they were literally destroying the island. So anyway, while we dropped these scientists off on this island, we went on an adventure of our own and my dad made this great lobster poaching case while we were there. So that was just the beginning. Here i am peek being out of the galley watching this whole thing take place and hes got these guys yelling and screaming these lobster poachers and it was quite an experience. And then later on, there was a case where i was with my dad when i was a teenager on a night patrol where there these duck poachers down in the willows area which is south of here where and a rice fields and this kind of thing and what they called market hunters would go out at night. And that he would sneak up on these huge flocks of in the thousands of ducks and geese and then they would just fire their shotguns into them and kill hundreds of them at the same time. So one night, were working that. And i ended up there are three or four wardens in the working in the same place. They all go in Different Directions and one of the old timer wardens said why dont you ride with me instead of your dad. So i ended up going with this guy and we go down the road and he parks and starts to get out of his car and i get out of the car like im going with him. Son, you arent going to go with me. You stay here and watch my car. And im thinking man, i dont want to do that. Watch your car . I wanted to go out so about halfway through this night, while hes out there on this levy, i thought heck, im going to walk back to my dads car and about a mile away so i walk out to the road. And im walking back out to the back down toward where my fathers patrol car is, and i hear this these voices and coming across the field and hear these people slopping through the mud and here comes these two duck poachers out of the field. So im im hiding behind the while these guys come slopping through the mud over the road and then they disappear. And they ended up hiding all their these gunny sacks full of these illegal ducks they had killed in a culvert. And so anyway, i end up helping to make this case later and showing my dad and these two wardens that hes working with where these guys had hidden their ducks and next day they catch them. And so it was quite an adventure for me. Those were two examples and the book is full of those investigations. So watching my dad, learning the little tricks to being a good wildlife officer, like dont slam the door when you get out of the car. That kind of thing. Because they hear you. And then its over. And all these little things. So i couldnt wait when i got old enough. And i graduated from college, i i wanted to be a fish and game warden myself. So i had a head start. Where a lot of these wardens when they start the job, they had to go through a process of learning a learning process. Well, i had already gone through all that onthejob training for the last 10 years of my life riding around with my dad. So being a fish and game warden is not an appointed position. Its just like any other Civil Service job. You have to take a test. You passion the written and you take an oral. And then youre on a list. And if youre lucky and you do well enough, your name will come up on the list. And theyll do an investigation. And theyll background check and everything else. And if all that goes well, then youll get a call and say hey, were we decided to hire you. And youre your first position is going to be in my case, my first position was in a place called earp down in the Colorado River which was one of the hottest places in the world in the summertime. But i didnt care. I was so excited i couldnt believe it. So thats how it all started for me. The same time, working down in the Southern California area was was a great learning experience. And i had a lot of fun down there. And learned a whole lot. Later on, in my career i was or i was there in the Colorado River for 3 1 2 years and i got promoted to lieutenant. And went to the San Bernardino riverside area and worked all kinds of interesting investigations there related to exotic animals and these reptile collectors and a lot of things you never do up here. I worked a case for over a year bald ing there was eagle which is an endangered species was shot and left at the front gate of the fish and game office in redding. And i one day i showed up at work. And they told me about this, finding this eegal and everybody thought well throw it in the freezer and theres not much we can do. There was a note attached to this eagle to the leg of the eagle threatening the life of one of the wardens i supervised at the time. It was kind of like a message you better leave us alone or more than this was going to happen. So rather than just give up i started doing a lot of research and investigation and asking around. And i started getting little tips here and tips there and i came up with two suspects. And ended up giving these guys a handwriting exemplar exam. Where i tested and then i sent off the handwriting to the f. B. I. To where with this note and the f. B. I. Confirmed that my suspects were the ones that wrote the note. So i ended up sending the feathers of this bird to the Smithsonian Institute. What we did a search warrant search warrants on both of their houses and came up with a lot of other evidence and different feathers and everything. So we ended up sending them off to the Smithsonian Institute in washington, d. C. And they pinpointed what species these were. And there was a case and another example of that was some of the evidence went to the San Francisco homicide forensics unit. And these guys only investigate murders. But they were thinking this is great. Im tired i get to work an eagle case . So they they ended up telling me the exact position that eagle was in when it was shot. And the angle that the bullet came into the eagle and whether it was a female or a male and the whole thing. And so anyway, after all that was done, i narrowed it down to these guys and convicted them and one of them ended up going to prison and the other one about six months in jail. The greatest issue is habitat loss. If were going to have wildlife, we have to have habitat, places for wildlife to live. And need water, cover, and space. And more of that space is being covered with houses and Shopping Centers and buildings and highways and the longer we go, the more of it is being covered. And thats a huge issue. And for what little wildlife we have to have left, you have to have somebody to enforce those laws to keep people from going out and killing it illegally. The biggest problem is money. If people theres a way to make money somebody will kill it to get money. And the ocean is a huge problem. Weve got theres 1,100 miles of coastline on california where and the along the coast theres all this a lot of illegal commercial fishing going on. And theres only just a few officers to go around to enforce the laws and to keep so that well always have fish and wildlife. And its a long story. But theyre setting up marine protected areas where theyre closed to certain activities to allow these overfished species to come back. And then theres the huge issue on the federal level with well, an example of whats going on right now in washington, d. C. Where a lot of the agencies are being defunded. And environmental agencies are being defunded. You cant have your cake and eat it, too. If you dont fund these agencies, dont count on there being much wildlife left in a few years. So you cant take that away and expect to have wildlife. California is fortunate. Because california has always been a state that values its resources. And so the policies have remained good. And one of the issues has always been the fact that not being near enough wildlife officers to go around. Because im not sure right now what is there, like almost 40 Million People in california. And the field the number of wildlife officers in the field is probably around 400. So that gives you a little example of but working with the legislature, california officers have done fairly well. They are pretty well supported. I wrote both books for three reasons. First reason i had all these Great Stories to tell. Nd i wanted people to enjoy enjoy these Great Stories and the second reason was for people to understand that the game wardens job involves a whole lot more than just checking fishing licenses and wrishing fishing tickets. There are a million things a game warden has to do. And the third and most important reason was i wanted a resource a conservation message in everything i write. So thats what i want them to take away from it. S just each one of those stories has a message about how valuable these resources are. And what it takes to keep them to keep them there. So people can future generations can enjoy them. And thats what i would say. And everybody thats talked weve had hundreds of people tell us how much they enjoy the book. And its not just hunters and fishermen a lot of people that dont hunt and fish i love your book because theyre Great Stories and i understand the message youre trying to convey by writing them. I was thinking this week about how to get our writing done in Turbulent Times and remember those of you feeling disenfranchised. And put that into your writing and flesh out your characters a little more. Continue to write as though youre going to get beyond the Turbulent Times. I am now joined by sara from the Writers Forum. Welcome to our meeting. And thank you so much for thinking of us and coming to join us today. Were honored to have you here. Off with what is the Writers Forum . An organization that had the beginnings in the early 1980s when we discovered we had several people in our community who were interested in writing. And who wanted to meet and etwork with likeminded folks. We eventually became a Larger Organization and more formal. And when we decided we needed a mission statement, what we decided was that our mission is to promote the craft of writing as an art and as a profession. And we felt that covered all of the kinds of needs that our community would have. And we have a farreaching community actually. We go beyond redding and beyond Shasta County. We have people who come as far from as far away as maybe even southern oregon, sacramento, and to the east and to the west up in the foothills. And some of the mountain communities. How did you get involved in what were going to so many years ago that i cant believe im im old enough to tell you the whole story. But ive always for years and years, ive been interested in writing. I wasnt sure what sort of writing. So i took some news writing and reporting courses at our local college. And went on to take photo journalism classes. And then when we ran out of courses in writing here in the area, i started looking for groups. And i saw an ad for a critique group. Joined that group. It was run by a lovely woman who was here in town for a few years while her husband was finishing a medical internship at one of our hospitals. When we realized we had several groups doing this independent of each other, we we brought those groups together into one organization. And thats how it began in the early 1980s. And it grew and developed from there. And it has thrived and remained a vibrant organization including the 501c3 that we were granted in the early 1990s. And my role has has most of the time when ive been on the board, ive been the Program Director. In the early years, its so far back that i barely remember until i see the plaque on the wall on my office that i was actually the president at one time. But i really enjoyed the Program Director position. And have been doing that now again for several years. I was out of this state in the early 1990s going back to finish getting my degrees at a university in connecticut. But once i came back home and got back involved, i got back into the Program Director role again. Just to follow up on that, what are your responsibilities as primarily to ensure that we have a presenter for each of our eight programs that we put on for our group. We have monthly meetings. And eight times a year, we try to present a program that is both educational and somewhat entertaining. And we try to keep a broad variety of topics so that no matter what our members interests are, they have an opportunity to Gain Knowledge and skills in whatever fields that theyre their writing interests lie. How do you guys decide on what you guys read about or talk about during the times you guys meet . We have a board made up of 10 members. And as Program Director, i have always asked my board to give me suggestions or ideas. And we discuss those at our board meeting. And we look back at our schedule to see ok, when was the last time our talk was on poetry . When did we last discuss fiction, short story, how to write the essay . Even things like maybe near tax time, we bring in a tax expert or someone who can talk about other legal aspects of writing. What is lible . How do you avoid Copyright Infringement and in a sort of thing . We just try to paint with the broadest possible brush so that we dont miss any topics that might be of value to our members. And the board is very helpful to me with that. Recently, we sent out a survey to all of our members. And we we put in the survey every possible topic category that we could think of. And we asked them to evaluate, number this in order of your interest 110 what you would most like to see at one of our meetings. The results of that is the Program Schedule that we have this year. And coming up next month, we have the craft we have elements of fiction. And after that, the craft of writing a memoir. And then following up with that, we have were going to have a presentation on writing biography. So we just keep it as broad as possible so that we touch on any potential writing interests. What has the response been from the community . We have a great response. We we get good Media Coverage for every one of our meetings when we have Something Special going on, we get even special Media Coverage that way. We try when we can to include the community in our activities. One reason that weve done the authors fair is that pulls in a lot of people who are not members and who dont attend our general meetings. But that gives them an opportunity to come and put their books out and meet with people and have an opportunity to let people know what theyre doing out there. Weve years ago, we did something that i really enjoy because im also you may remember from a previous conversation about acting and theater. We have a very vibrant, active theater in this community that started out just about the same time we did. And so theres been some backandforth and in fact our speaker today is very involved with that. Research, dont let them get you. How many times have you read something or watched something on television or in a movie she and i did a talk several months ago about writing for the live stage. And so that will bring in potential Community Members who may not be regular members. But thats something they want to know about. So what we try to do is do enough publicity about our program so that anyone in the community who may not be a regular member can have an opportunity to come and hear something useful to them, too. So what does this mean to redding to have a Writers Forum like this that you help direct, what does it mean to redding to have a Writers Forum . I think it means a lot to redding. Weve done scholarship funds for High School Students for several years. Weve been funding 250 and 500 scholarships depending on how our treasury is looking. And weve done that every year. So weve inspired a lot of young people through every school in our entire redding community. Weve given them the opportunity to write and to submit work and to be eligible for scholarships. And weve also we try our best to let any writer know any writer who can make it to our meettion that were out here because of the opportunities for networking. And one of the things that im really proud of is that we have a lot of writers who want to be published. So when were able to work out to in ils that we need terms of location and time and money, weve been able to bring top level literary agents to come for an entire d