Member Profile

Craig Butler serves as the chief executive of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an organization which manages Ohio’s largest watershed (8,000 square miles) with the mission of preventing flooding, conserving natural resources, and promoting outdoor recreation. The MWCD owns and is steward to 60,000 acres and sixteen dams and reservoirs across Eastern and Southeastern Ohio, which its 415 employees manage in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USCOE). MWCD's recreation resources serve approximately five million Ohioans annually and its flood prevention mission is calculated by the USCOE to have prevented more than $10 billion in property damage since the MWCD’s inception. He also oversees oil and gas development within MWCD and recently signed a lease with Encino Energy that is the largest contiguous lease in Ohio’s history and one that will allow MWCD to continue a program of investment of over half a billion dollars into the Ohio economy.

Butler is a longtime Ohio natural resources and environmental leader, having previously served in senior positions under two governor’s administrations, including in the Governor’s Cabinet as director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. At the EPA, Butler led the agency’s 1,200 scientists, engineers, and administrative professionals to protect Ohio’s environment while building a culture that supported economic development and new job creation. Under his leadership the agency also developed initiatives that served as national models regarding climate change, drinking water supply and protection and watershed protection strategies.

Prior to joining MWCD, Butler led the Power Siting Board for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio where he worked to streamline the approval process for new power generation, initiated an overhaul of the Board’s governance and helped improve the consistency of the Board’s siting process.

Butler grew up in Pennsylvania and  holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from Ohio University. He has long been an advisor to founding Dean, Mark Weinberg at the Voinovich School on a range of issues relating to water quality research, government and policy, and redevelopment of the Department of Energy complex at Piketon, Ohio. He currently lives in Tuscarawas County with his family, where he enjoys hunting, fishing, mountain biking and endurance running.