Secretary Wade Crowfoot Named 2025 Minerva Hoyt California Desert Conservation Award Recipient

Joshua Tree National Park Association is thrilled  to announce the recipient of the 2025 Minerva Hoyt California Desert Conservation Award: Secretary Wade Crowfoot. This prestigious award honors individuals or organizations who have made exceptional  achievements in leadership, protection, preservation, research, education, and stewardship, contributing significantly to the conservation of California’s deserts. The date and location of the  award ceremony will be announced shortly. 

Secretary Wade Crowfoot has demonstrated exceptional leadership, vision, and commitment to the long-term conservation of California’s desert ecosystems. Through his stewardship of the California Natural Resources Agency, Secretary Crowfoot has elevated desert conservation as a statewide priority while successfully balancing climate resilience, biodiversity protection, renewable energy planning, cultural preservation, public access, and national defense partnerships.

Among his most consequential achievements is California’s leadership role in establishing the Mojave Desert Sentinel Landscape, a landmark 3.5-million-acre collaborative conservation initiative spanning the western Mojave Desert. Established in 2024 by the Federal Coordinating Committee, the designation brings together federal, state, tribal, military, nonprofit, and local government partners to protect ecologically sensitive desert landscapes while supporting multi-use recreation, military readiness, and climate resilience.  The designation unites the Department of War, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Interior to provide voluntary assistance to private landowners and streamline regional and coordinated  conservation on public land across multiple agencies and stakeholders.

The Mojave Desert Sentinel Landscape is California’s first designation, representing one of the most innovative conservation and multi-use partnerships in the nation. Anchored by military installations including the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Fort Irwin, Edwards Air Force Base, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, and Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, the initiative protects vital habitat corridors, recreational lands, and working landscapes from incompatible development pressures. It also advances restoration efforts for imperiled species such as the desert tortoise and western Joshua tree while addressing escalating threats from wildfire, drought, and extreme weather effects.   

Secretary Crowfoot has also been instrumental in advancing California’s ambitious “30×30” conservation initiative — the statewide commitment to conserve 30 percent of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030. Under his leadership, California has integrated desert ecosystems into broader climate and biodiversity strategies, recognizing the Mojave and Colorado deserts as globally significant landscapes worthy of permanent protection and restoration. The Mojave Desert Sentinel Landscape itself directly complements California’s 30×30 goals by expanding collaborative conservation management across millions of acres of ecologically critical desert terrain.  

In his tenure at CNRA, Secretary Crowfoot supported and advanced the implementation of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a groundbreaking landscape-scale effort balancing renewable energy development with long-term habitat conservation across more than 22 million acres of California desert. This plan has become a national model for integrating clean energy objectives with science-based conservation planning.  

Secretary Crowfoot played a significant leadership role in supporting the designation of the Chuckwalla National Monument, a historic conservation achievement that protects hundreds of thousands of acres of spectacular California desert landscape. Recognizing the area’s exceptional biological diversity, critical wildlife habitat, cultural and sacred tribal resources, and unparalleled recreational opportunities, Secretary Crowfoot worked closely with congressional leadership, tribal nations, conservation organizations, local communities, and federal partners to advance monument designation. The establishment of Chuckwalla National Monument protects vital wildlife corridors connecting the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, safeguards habitat for species including the desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep, and preserves irreplaceable cultural landscapes stewarded by Indigenous peoples for generations. The monument stands as a lasting legacy of California and our Nation’s commitment to collaborative conservation and our shared vision of protecting California’s most iconic desert landscapes while advancing the state’s 30×30 and biodiversity goals.

Secretary Crowfoot’s leadership has strengthened partnerships with recreational groups, tribal communities, local governments, scientists, and conservation groups working to restore degraded habitat, expand wildlife corridors, conserve native plant diversity, protect recreational use of the land, and preserve the extraordinary biological and cultural resources of California’s deserts.  

Importantly, his work reflects the very spirit embodied by Minerva Hamilton Hoyt herself: the belief that California’s deserts are not wastelands, but irreplaceable landscapes of ecological, cultural, spiritual, and national significance deserving of enduring protection.

Through collaborative governance, science-driven policy, and bold conservation leadership, Secretary Wade Crowfoot has helped secure a more resilient future for the Mojave Desert and California’s desert ecosystems. His contributions have advanced conservation at a landscape scale rarely achieved in modern environmental stewardship and make him exceptionally deserving of recognition through the Minerva Hoyt Desert Conservation Award.

Secretary Crowfoot joins a distinguished list of past awardees who have made significant contributions  to desert conservation: 2004 – Susan Luckie Reilly; 2005 – Larry & Donna Charpied; 2006 – David  Myers, The Wildlands Conservancy; 2007 – John Wohlmuth, Coachella Valley Association of  Governments; 2008 – Mark Jorgenson, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; 2009 – Dianne  Feinstein; 2010 – Owens Valley Committee; 2011 – Elden E. Hughes (posthumously awarded);  2012 – Steve & Ruth Rieman; 2013 – Dee & Betty Zeller; 2014 – Desert Protective Council (Terry  Weiner); 2015 – Nancy Karl; 2016 – Cindy Zacks; 2017 – Pat Flanagan; 2018 – Robin Kobaly, The  Summertree Institute; 2019 – David Lamfrom, National Park Conservation Association; 2020 – Dr.  Cameron Barrows; 2021 – Frazier Haney; 2022 – Idavid Graficks; 2023 – Joan Taylor; 2024 – Laraine Turk.  

Joshua Tree National Park Association works in partnership with Joshua Tree National Park to help in its  achievement of programming goals in education and interpretation, along with scientific and historical research  and activities.