Carol Lively Oral History Transcript

Carol grew up on a dairy farm in western Massachusetts and loved the outdoors as influenced by her uncle Leroy, a naturalist. As a young woman, she attended Texas A&M in College Station. She grew to love Texas and often ventured along the border, the Rio Grande Valley immersing herself in the Latino culture. She did not take the traditional route of most women in the Service at the time of her hiring in the early 1970s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was specifically male-oriented, and women traditionally worked secretarial or administrative positions. Carol was ahead of her time and her career could not be replicated. After her graduation from Texas A&M, Carol planned to work at Mingo NWR, but she enlisted in the Peace Corps instead, becoming fluent in Spanish and working on conservation projects and environmental education in Colombia. This was the beginning of a career that was defined by working internationally on wildlife conservation and working in partnership with people from a multitude of agencies, non-governmental organizations, states and countries. Carol’s first permanent job with the Fish and Wildlife Service was at Wichita Mountains NWR where she had broad experiences and learned just about everything there is on a refuge including law enforcement and firefighting. 

While at Wichita Mountains, Carol was asked by the International Affairs program to provide environmental education and planning assistance to agencies in India. For seven years she traveled back and forth to India providing technical assistance on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She also trained natural resource managers from Latin America which included cross-cultural trips visits to many refuges and worked on water conservation projects in Mexico. Carol had great support from her supervisors and worked in Panama for two years on an Interagency Personnel Assignment with the World Wildlife Fund.

Upon her return to the Denver Regional Office, Carol began working on the new North American Waterfowl Management Plan, assisting in the setting up of the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture. She led or assisting in several joint venture projects and oversaw the implementation of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act in Region 6. Carol talks about the working with partners in the joint ventures as well as increasing diversity in the Fish and Wildlife Service. After 32 years with the Service, Carol moved to Washington D.C. to become the Migratory Species Program director of the U.S. Forest Service’s International Program for six years. Upon retirement, she and her husband Juan returned to her family farm in western Massachusetts.