TERRY HODGES

Hodges is a retired Fish and Game Warden who used helicopters, airplanes and canoes, often on his own time, to catch California's most heinous poachers.

He used a helicopter to snare waterfowl violators who had bragged they couldn't be caught, and became a pilot so he could fly single-engine aircraft over the Sierra Nevada at night to catch the worst of the deer spotlighters and bear poachers. He paddled a canoe in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to stalk illegal commercial salmon and striped bass gill-netters, and he developed a system of sound triangulation to locate out-of-season hunters and other illegal wildlife shooters.

As a gifted writer, he then brought game warden tales to life with a 20-year series of magazine stories and books. In the process, no one in America has better connected with the public the active role of conservation, or inspired more youth to become game wardens. He is also an avid bass fisherman and pilot.