On the Record: Wade Crowfoot talks California's natural resources 

• California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot leads efforts to conserve the state’s environment and natural resources—water, air quality, forests, energy and species. Many decisions and regulations that emerge from agency departments affect farmers and ranchers. Secretary Crowfoot responded to questions during an interview with Ag Alert^®. The below conversation was edited for length and clarity.

What are the agency’s top water infrastructure priorities this year?

We are focused on advancing key infrastructure that we need to build, including Sites Reservoir and delta conveyance. This includes improving our systems to be more flexible, such as maximizing groundwater recharge during storms and exporting water from the delta, so really building water security given extreme weather. For Sites, if we secure all needed permitting and approvals by the end of 2026, our local partners tell us they anticipate beginning construction by around the same time, or early 2027. 

Last year, the Natural Resources Agency released the draft California Climate Adaptation Strategy. What meaningful outcomes will the strategy provide for agriculture?

We need to build an economy that is resilient to climate change and its impacts. We need to help agriculture adapt by continuing to invest in and support farmers and ranchers that are modernizing their operations. This means projects through our State Water Efficiency and Enhancement program, or SWEEP, projects to enrich soils to allow for more water retention and continuing to modernize water infrastructure. I’m optimistic these projects will ultimately strengthen the resilience of agriculture, but of course, we have a lot more work to do. 

Will the California State Water Resources Control Board approve the voluntary agreements as part of the update to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta Plan? 

I’m optimistic that the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program, known as the voluntary agreements, will be adopted by the board in the coming months. The most durable approach is one that brings all parties together to find a common solution. This is management that is more adaptive and more responsive to changing conditions and I think, ultimately, more effective to protect the environment and secure water supplies. We’ve experienced decades of finger pointing and litigation, and it hasn’t put us in a good place. I’m optimistic that in many watersheds across the state, conditions are ripe for these type of agreements that bring different parties together. 

How can California do more to mitigate the risk of wildfires, including prevention and fuel-reduction efforts?

We’ve done quite a bit in recent years to strengthen Cal Fire response, but also to take upfront, proactive measures to protect communities. Gov. Newsom issued an emergency order to streamline projects to get more projects on the ground quickly by waiving very long permitting timeframes. Almost $3 billion has been spent on thousands of fuel breaks and prescribed fire and vegetation thinning projects statewide to protect communities. Conditions continue to intensify, and we need to do more faster in coming months and years.

With a new administration in Washington, D.C., how is the California Natural Resources Agency navigating changes in federal policy? What are the opportunities for collaboration?

We are really focused on ensuring that we can continue to protect people and natural resources. On water, it means continuing to operate our state infrastructure to maximize water supplies while protecting the health of our rivers. These priorities require coordination with our federal agencies. I think there’s a shared priority to build Site’s Reservoir, and I hope there’s a shared priority to modernize water conveyance through the delta, but also to address subsiding aqueducts in the Central Valley and to recharge groundwater. I hope there’s a shared priority to continue to do more to build fuel breaks and protect communities from wildfire. I’m optimistic that we’ll find a way to continue to partner with federal agencies to take care of Californians. 

Building more transmission lines to meet the state’s clean energy goals places more pressure on agricultural lands. How can better procedures be put in place to involve impacted residents and lessen the effects?

There are clearly a lot of energy projects being built across the state and across the Central Valley, and it’s really important that we empower counties and leaders to plan their land use to enable continued agricultural production while helping build our energy infrastructure. There’s a great example in the southern San Joaquin Valley where Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties have come together to create a regional economic plan as part of the state’s Jobs First effort. They’ve identified continued agriculture, focused energy production and other economic development priorities.

With reports from ranchers about wolves killing and wounding livestock, what is the California Department of Fish and Wildlife doing to help producers recover losses? 

The state’s Wolf-Livestock Compen-sation Program has since 2021 provided $3 million to compensate ranchers who lost livestock from wolves. The program expended all of its money, so last year, the California Legislature and the governor secured $650,000, plus $500,000 in federal funds, to continue the program. We are also focused on monitoring wolves more effectively to identify wolf habitat use, diet relationships with other wildlife and wolf-livestock conflict. The focus of the partnership is to enable conditions where wolves avoid preying on livestock. It’s important that we take next steps in the state’s Wolf Management Plan to address these impacts on livestock and ranching. More on that soon. 

When mentioning challenges, farmers often cite regulatory burdens and cost of government regulations and/or fees. How can these be lessened so that agriculture continues to thrive in the state? 

We can do a better job in state government understanding what the different regulatory impacts are on farmers and ranchers. During the past six years in this job, I’ve learned a lot from agricultural producers about the aggregated impact, and we can better coordinate our regulatory programs to reduce burdens, whether it is site visits or regulatory timelines, so it reduces the administrative burden. We’re open-minded to understanding where regulations aren’t working well. We recognize that a water-secure future for agriculture and predictability of government actions are among the most important things that we can provide for California agriculture, and we’re really working to provide both. 

California’s working landscapes can be an important tool to help sequester carbon. How can farmers and others in agriculture work better with your agency and vice versa? 

We in government need to lift up farmers and ranchers as really important land conservationists. The work that agriculture does across California is really important to our conservation, and we consider working landscapes to be part of the state’s solutions to combat climate change. Well-managed lands remove and store carbon from the atmosphere while generating economic activity. I’m hopeful that over time we can find a way to compensate farmers for the work that they do sequestering carbon. 

We have an open door for farmers and agricultural organizations that have ideas about how we can work together or what we can do better. We have benefited over the years from working with the Farm Bureau and the Ag Council. These are strong relationships, and we want to keep the lines of communication really direct. I know there’s a lot more that we can do together.