Kobetich, 60, a fishery biologist and manager during his 33-year career with the Service, helped devise innovative plans that achieved a compromise between developing land and preserving habitat.
“I guess you would call it a practical approach,” Kobetich told an interviewer before retiring. “We canšt stop development. We canšt buy all the private property out there. Therefore, you negotiate the best deal you can get.”
Kobetich got some good deals. In recent years, he helped to create several multi-species reserves in San Diego and Orange County where the model Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) is achieving a foothold.
His work received accolades from colleagues and coworkers.
Secretary for Resources Doug Wheeler praised Kobetich for leaving “an extraordinary natural legacy” and for “making NCCP and habitat conservation planning a model of partnership in Southern California.”
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Said Wheeler, “These plans set the standard for the state and the rest of the nation to follow as examples of state, federal, and local teamwork in development planning and natural resources conservation.”
Colleague Beth Stevens, acting field supervisor for the Servicešs Carlsbad office, described Kobetich as a unique individual who shaped the direction of the agency and habitat conservation planning.
“Gail was able to accomplish something that a lot of others try but donšt succeed,” Stevens said. “He brought to the job a personal low-key style, a background in biology, knowledge of law, and manner of operating in an open forum with dialogue rather than confrontation.” Stevens said Kobetich made a strong impact on the employees of the Service.
“He was able to teach and guide biologists and fashion them into strong managers,” she said.
Creating HCPs
Kobetich established the first Endangered Species Act field office for the Service in Sacramento in 1977.
He was instrumental in creating the nation’s first habitat conservation plan (HCP) in the 1980s to protect the endangered mission blue butterfly while allowing development to proceed around San Bruno Mountain south of San Francisco. The concept protected wildlife and allowed “incidental take” permits, providing that developers filed a federally acceptable habitat conservation plan.
“Setting aside organized, connected, managed preserves is the only way to give the species half a chance of surviving, and Išm convinced they will survive,” Kobetich said in a California Biodiversity News interview last year.
In 1988, Kobetich received The Nature Conservancyšs President’s Award for Conservation, and in 1985 he received a proclamation from the city of Riverside for his efforts to develop an HCP to preserve the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard.
A native of Kansas, Kobetich spent most of his career in the Southwest and played a key role in developing and implementing the Servicešs desert fishes program.
Earlier, he taught biology and laboratory courses at the University of New Mexico, where he earned degrees in biology and zoology.