Boyd Gibbons Replaces Bontadelli at DFG

Boyd Gibbons, a lawyer, writer and former government environmental specialist, was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to replace Pete Bontadelli as director of the California Department of Fish and Game Wednesday.

Bontadelli, an appointee of former Gov. George Deukmejian in 1988, will remain with the DFG to direct operations for oil spills. There had been speculation since Wilson’s election 13 months ago that Bontadelli would be replaced.

Gibbons, 54, has lived in Bethesda, Md., in recent years. He was born in Los Angeles but moved with his family to Montana when he was 13.

He was a judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa before becoming a legislative assistant to Sen. Paul Fannin of Arizona in 1968. That led him to the Department of the Interior as a deputy undersecretary in 1969, and from 1970 to ’73 he was secretary and senior staff member of President Nixon’s Council on Environmental Quality. He then wrote on natural resources in the National Geographic magazine.

Last spring, Gibbons approached Wilson and Resources Agency Secretary Doug Wheeler--two old acquaintances--about the DFG job. “I missed politics and government,” Gibbons said, “and fish and game issues are things that matter to me.”

Gibbons, a member of the California and Arizona bar associations, has been an avid hunter and fisherman but acknowledged that he knows little of California’s or the DFG’s particular problems. “I’ll be honest,” he said, “I’m in great ignorance there. The prominent (issues) seem to be wetlands, the flow of rivers and endangered species, but I really want to get out and see the country.”

Two of Bontadelli’s three deputy directors were not replaced when they retired this year, and Gibbons said he anticipated no sweeping changes in department staff immediately.

“I won’t know what needs to be done until I size it up,” he said.

He will take office in January.

Last week, Wilson also filled the fifth-seat vacancy on the Fish and Game Commission by appointing Gus Owen, owner of an Orange County property management company.