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FOX NEWS We got some amazing video and pictures. Wardens boarding boats, busting poachers, searching restaurants, massive dope busts on public land and approaching poachers through huge duck blinds. California game wardens have the second largest law enforcement jurisdiction in the country and arguably one of the toughest jobs.  
More than 300,000 square miles of land and water are under its patrol. From Death Valley, to 10,000 foot mountain peaks. From vast waters and coastline, to the plains of the San Joaquin Valley....nothing is out of reach or out of bounds.
Wardens also have to deal with crime that ranges from fishing without a license to murder, drug cartels and even national security. Add to it....Poaching. Now estimated in the hundreds of millions per year, second only to drugs, poaching anything and everything in California in some ways can be free game because there is just too much area to cover and not enough officers to cover it. We spoke with the Chief Game Warden Nancy Foley and she says, “We are the first line of defense for the natural resources, which is ultimately the human race.” But with just 358 sworn officers to cover an area twice the size of California, Wardens are nearly as extinct as some of the animals they are trying to save. California's budget crisis also means relief wont be found any time soon. For example, in Florida there are nearly 900 wardens and Texas almost doubles the numbers here in the Golden State.
“There's just not enough game wardens to enforce and be out in the field to encounter those types of people doing that kind of illegal activity,” says Game Warden Byron Trunnell. Jerry Karnow from the Game Warden Association adds, “Because we patrol in these non typical areas, that most law enforcement does not patrol we come across really nasty crimes.”
And with back up in some cases hundreds of miles away and wardens outnumbered across the state saving wildlife may be secondary to self preservation.
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