The department, part of the California Natural Resources Agency, has as its mission: “To manage California’s diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public. This includes habitat protection and maintenance in a sufficient amount and quality to protect the survival of species and natural communities. The department is also responsible for the diversified use of fish and wildlife, including recreational, commercial, scientific, and educational uses.”
And like everything else in state government, technology plays a big part in that mission.
FAST FACTS
Leadership: Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot, who serves in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cabinet, has held that role since 2019. The department’s tech operation comes under the aegis of its deputy director and chief information officer, Stephen Adams.
By the numbers: The department’s total expenditures in Newsom’s January proposed 2025-26 fiscal year budget were listed as roughly $771,569, a figure that shrunk in his May Revise to $736,375, a reduction of about 4.5 percent.
In Newsom’s proposed budget issued in January, DFW was proposed to have 3,232 employees. Newsom’s May Revise lowered that to 3,079 positions, a 4.7 percent reduction, or 153 jobs (with rounding).
The department’s five largest buys of IT goods in 2024 totaled $5.7 million, which included licensing fees, subscriptions and hardware. That was almost 50 percent higher than what DFW spent on its five largest buys of IT goods in 2023, which was $3.7 million. Its largest hardware buy was $2.5 million for camera-based vision systems for automated data collection, in a Feb. 22 contract with Integrated Surveillance.
FINS, FEATHERS, FUR
The department’s wildlife focus, as presented on its website, includes such fauna-related initiatives as regulating hunting, tracking wolves, managing the state’s fish hatcheries, regulating salmon releases, targeting game poachers and polluters, managing sportfishing and keeping the public apprised of health restrictions on seafood consumption.
In its wide-ranging operations, the department uses a variety of technologies, including game cameras, tracking collars, geographic information systems, data dashboards and tip lines for the public. The wolf-tracking project is the newest among its programs, having been announced last week, and includes an online tool designed to help livestock producers better understand the location of wolves in order to protect their herds.
The collars collect wolf location data about four times a day and transmit those locations to the department each morning, at which point the location data is automatically transmitted to the online map. When clicked, a hexagonal cell on the map yields data about the wolf’s pack, the general area they are in and the last transmission date. Fourteen wolves in California are currently adorned with the GPS collars.
