Charlton “Chuck” Bonham will step down as director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at the end of the month, after dealing with a number of issues that have plagued his long tenure, including a resurgence of wolves and declining salmon populations.
As of Jan. 26, Bonham will become California’s executive director of the Nature Conservancy, one of the nation’s largest environmental nonprofits.
“After 15 years, I felt like I had given everything I could in public service, and it was time for a change,” Bonham said at a California Fish and Game Commission meeting this month.
He was initially appointed by Gov. Former Jerry Brown in 2011, Bonham is the longest-serving director of the agency, which has an annual budget of about $1 billion and more than 3,000 employees.
It was not an easy task, Bonham said. Being the state’s top wildlife manager involves balancing animal conservation with human needs, including public safety and economic goals. A decision that pleases animal welfare advocates can anger industry stakeholders (and vice versa).
Take the wolves. The same year Bonham took over the agency, the first gray wolf the state had caught in nearly a century wandered in from Oregon. Wolves have since reclaimed the kingdom – a development hailed by conservationists as an environmental success but derided by many farmers whose cattle are being slaughtered by skilled hunters.
Recently, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife made what Bonham described as a “painful decision” to euthanize several members of the Sierra Valley wolf pack facing an unprecedented number of livestock attacks.
“I feel like it’s affecting my life. It was painful, but it’s the balance of two things that happened,” Bonham said at a recent commission meeting. There is a “good recovery” and “what our rural communities are going through.”
Then there’s the salmon. Bonham’s colleagues publicly praised him for overseeing the removal of four dams along the Klamath River, leading to the restoration of salmon in their historic habitat. While many see that as a big win, it doesn’t represent the bigger, bleaker picture of salmon in the state. Native fish stocks have declined dramatically due to drought and human development. With populations so low, commercial salmon fishing has been closed for the past three years – drawing harsh criticism from Bonham.
In an interview, Bonham admitted that the challenges – especially those that affect people’s health – worried him. The department is involved in water management, housing development and electricity transition. Complicating such complex issues is what Bonham describes as a breakdown in public discourse.
“I don’t think any moment or problem or day for me was ever the point, but I would say that the cumulative effects, or effects, are real.”
At a recent meeting of the Fish and Game Commission, Samantha Murray, the commission’s vice president, described him as a “steady, calm, composed presence,” and praised his extensive experience at the agency.
“All we see is wise leadership in the face of increasing challenges related to climate, drought, wildfires, human-wildlife conflicts,” he said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom praised Bonham in a statement, saying she leads the department with “heart and conviction” and calling her “a champion of California’s natural heritage.”
But for some, Bonham represents an ill-advised opportunity for a department that critics say has been hijacked by left-leaning elements and is out of touch with the state’s hunters and anglers. Some suggest that the way the agency presents itself is evidence of this change: In 2013, the department adopted its current name. Before that, it was called the California Department of Fisheries The game.
“During his tenure as director Californians have lost the ability to fish and hunt dozens of species of fish and game because of poor management,” Mike Rasmussen, Northern California fisheries director, he wrote in an Instagram post about his departure. “Hello Felicia!” he added.
Bonham described his transition to the nonprofit as “coming home.”
The outgoing director grew up in Atlanta and attended the University of Georgia as an undergrad.
After graduating, he volunteered with the Peace Corps, arriving in Senegal in West Africa.
After that, “I wanted to go back to the place that was most important to me as a person, the outdoors,” he said.
For several years, he worked as an outdoor guide, mainly leading whitewater rafting trips at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina.
But he believed that there was more he could do to take care of the wild places that we cherished. So he enrolled at Louis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., where he studied public interest law with an environmental focus.
He also trained for Trout Unlimited, a non-profit organization that aims to protect rivers and streams, which turned out to be his route to California.
The nonprofit asked him to manage its legal practice in California, which he called “the greatest place.”
It was in that capacity, at the beginning of the Troubles, that Bonham became immersed in the bitter debate over what to do with scarce water in the Klamath Basin – irrigate farms or protect salmon. Native Americans clashed with farmers. “It was described as a choice between people and the environment. Fish or farms,” he said. “And it was a miracle.”
That experience marked the next phase of his career, when Bonham became director of the state’s wildlife department. He transitioned into a key negotiator with stakeholders including tribes and the federal government, which led to the acquisition of four hydroelectric dams.
Once Bonham leaves, Valerie Termini, the department’s deputy executive director, will take over on an interim basis. It will be up to Newsom – or whoever succeeds him when his term expires next year – to appoint a permanent successor.
Brendan Cummings, director of conservation for the Center for Biological Diversity, said that while he often disagrees with Bonham’s decisions, he ultimately thinks the state’s wildlife is in a better place than anyone else in charge.
With threats like climate change looming, “whoever succeeds Chuck will play a critical role in whether California is able to protect our natural heritage in the most difficult decades ahead,” he said.
The Nature Conservancy, a more than 70-year-old nonprofit organization, focuses on ocean and land management, as well as shaping national and organizational policy — and coming up with “creative solutions,” Bonham said.
It’s the same as what he’s been doing, but he believes that in the private sector, “I can do it more gracefully and professionally, and I’m looking forward to that.”
