Kevin Cobble Oral History Transcript

Kevin talks about growing up in New Mexico and his early conservation experiences including going to Bosque del Apache NWR as a youth. He knew he wanted to work in conservation since he was about 10 years old. Kevin went to New Mexico State in Las Cruces, New Mexico, graduating with a degree in wildlife science in 1978. His career with the Fish and Wildlife Service started in the Fisheries Assistant Office in Pinetop, Arizona. Kevin describes his various jobs in the Service, working at national fish hatcheries in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and national wildlife refuges in Arizona and New Mexico. He describes working to protect endangered fish at San Bernardino NWR and rebuilding populations of mule deer and desert bighorn sheep at San Andres NWR, which is an overlay of the White Sands Missile Base. Kevin describes workforce planning and the efforts he took to keep San Andres NWR staffed and viable. He then transferred to Bosque del Apache NWR as the refuge manager and describes some of his duties there at a significantly different and larger refuge including more salt cedar control, dealing with reduced budgets, managing water rights, and dealing with staffing changes.

At the time of the interview, Kevin was still an active-duty employee, serving as the manager of the Bosque del Apache NWR. He retired at the end of December 2018.