Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Wade Crowfoot

8. Wade Crowfoot

As Gov. Newsom’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Wade Crowfoot is at the center of the debates over climate change, conservation, fire protection and water supply, among others. He’s no stranger to controversy and legal battles: In the historic fight over removing four Klamath River dams, Crowfoot was targeted in a lawsuit to block him from spending $250 million to do the deed. The program, much to the satisfaction of tribal nations but with opposition from some Siskiyou-area water users, is pushing forward anyway. Crowfoot’s role is a big deal: He has jurisdiction over 25,000 employees and 26 government departments, including such heavies as the departments of Water Resources, Cal Fire, and Fish and Wildlife. A former political director of the Environmental Defense Fund, Crowfoot advised Newsom when the latter was mayor of San Francisco. He also served as Gov. Jerry Brown’s deputy cabinet secretary and senior advisor, and he joined the Newsom administration in 2019 in an early round of appointments. Crowfoot, a product of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the London School of Economics, grew up in Michigan, coming to California in the 1990s.

Updated Aug. 15, 2023