California’s Top Wildlife Official Steps Down to Lead The Nature Conservancy

Chuck Bonham, the longest-serving Director in the 150-year history of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), is stepping down after 15 years to join The Nature Conservancy’s California unit. Effective January 26, 2026, Bonham will serve as TNC’s California Executive Director, overseeing the organization’s work protecting land, rivers, and coastal habitats statewide.

Governor Gavin Newsom praised Bonham’s tenure, highlighting his leadership on major conservation efforts such as Klamath River dam removal and salmon habitat restoration. “His belief that nature can rebound has shaped our state,” Newsom said.

But Bonham leaves behind a deeply mixed legacy — one sharply criticized by many in the fishing community.

Under his watch, the commercial salmon season was closed for three straight years, Delta smelt vanished from CDFW surveys, and multiple species in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta collapsed. Fishing groups argue these declines happened on Bonham’s watch and point to state water policies as a central cause.

“Bonham’s legacy lies with the commercial salmon industry shuttered for three years,” said Vance Staplin of the Golden State Salmon Association, noting the economic fallout for fishing-dependent communities. Some critics also called for new leadership that better represents the state’s fishing and hunting communities.

TNC leadership welcomed Bonham, praising his conservation expertise and ability to guide complex environmental efforts. Since 1959, TNC has helped protect more than one million acres across California.

Bonham departs amid the Delta’s worst ecological crisis on record, and as debates intensify over water exports, habitat loss, and the future of salmon in California.