The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has refined the boundaries of several of its regions to enhance its ability to manage California's fish and wildlife resources and better serve the public.

"We have a responsibility as the trustee for California's fish, wildlife and habitat resources to manage these resources in the most efficient manner possible," said DFG Director Ryan Broddrick. "By aligning our operations to address broad resource issues while maintaining an emphasis on local concerns, we can more effectively serve the resource and our constituents."

Effective Jan. 1, the boundary changes allow the San Francisco Bay Delta area to be managed as a single unit, the Bay Delta Region, in order to better focus resources on this area's critical and complicated needs.

"Our Department is active in the extremely complex arena of managing our state's limited water resources, which is an issue of particular emphasis within the Bay Delta Region," Broddrick said.

The new Bay Delta Region, currently headquartered in Napa, includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties, plus the delta portions of Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Yolo counties.

Other adjustments designed to improve management flexibility and to better align regions by criteria such as geographic proximity, habitat and resource management issues include: Mendocino County joining the Northern Region, headquartered in Redding; Lake County joining the North Central Region, headquartered in Rancho Cordova; and San Benito, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties joining the Central Region, headquartered in Fresno.

Regional maps and contact information are available on the DFG Web home page at http://www.dfg.ca.gov.