If you ask Haley Kokel about her path into conservation, she won’t talk about a single “aha” moment. Instead, she’ll tell you about a lifetime of steady steps—starting across the road from her childhood home in tiny Waldeck, Texas, where a Fayette County 4-H fishing camp sparked her love for the outdoors. That passion only grew, and today, Haley’s entire life—work, family, volunteer service—is rooted in a deep commitment to conservation.
She owns and operates Fish On Aquatic Plants, a native aquatic plant nursery based in College Station. From planting pond edges to restoring lakeshores, Haley’s work helps support fish and waterfowl habitat, reduce erosion, and improve water quality. It’s hands-on, ecologically important, and a natural fit for someone with her background.
But launching the business wasn’t always part of the plan.
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M, Haley worked for both the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Missouri Department of Conservation. Her career took her from classroom instruction to fish sampling to aquatic plant propagation, all while growing a reputation as someone with considerable expertise in native vegetation.
When she moved back to Texas in 2019, she started attending conferences to get a feel for job opportunities near her. The advice she got was consistent: Start your own nursery.
“After the fourth person said it, my husband and I had a serious conversation,” she says. “We started the nursery on our three-quarter-acre lot in Aledo, and it took off from there.”
Now in College Station, Haley has expanded her business and client base. Whether she’s collecting cuttings, mapping planting zones, or helping landowners design better fish habitat, she’s combining science and practicality to support healthy ecosystems across the state.
That same instinct to connect people with conservation brought her to Stewards of the Wild, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation’s conservation leadership program for young adults. She first joined the Fort Worth Chapter in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic paused in-person gatherings. When she and her family moved to College Station in 2022, she jumped into the Bryan-College Station Chapter and quickly found her place—eventually becoming chapter chair in July 2023.
“For me, Stewards was a way to build community,” she says. “I didn’t just want to find a job—I wanted to connect with other people who care about the same things.”
Haley says one of the biggest strengths of her chapter is that nearly the entire advisory council is made up of conservation professionals. That gives them a unique perspective—and makes their outreach even more effective.
“Not everyone grows up fishing or camping or knowing what ‘habitat management’ means,” she says. “We want to help make conservation relevant and accessible, especially for people who didn’t have those experiences growing up.”
That’s why the Bryan-College Station Chapter offers a mix of activities: educational outreach, outdoor adventures, and social events with a conservation twist. They’ve partnered with the City of College Station to host booths at community events, bringing awareness to programs like Lights Out Texas. They’ve organized kayaking trips and happy hours, but also hosted a floral design class to talk about native plants in everyday landscaping.
“It’s about meeting people where they are,” she says. “You don’t need a background in biology to care about native species. You don’t need land to make a difference.”
Education has long been part of Haley’s story. As a kid, she took part in 4-H wildlife habitat contests and attended youth taxidermy camps. She was a cadet at Texas Brigades’ Bass Brigade in 2008 and now serves as the organization’s vice president. She’s also a past president of the Texas Aquatic Plant Management Society, a committee chair with the Texas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, and a volunteer with her children’s elementary school PTO. She’s not just busy—she’s deeply embedded in a network of conservation professionals and volunteers working to shape the next generation.
That includes her own kids. Haley and her husband, an agricultural lender, spend weekends outside with their two young children fishing, camping, and hunting on family property. Both kids are eager to harvest their first deer next season, and Haley uses every outing as a teaching moment.
“When we go fishing, we clean the fish, remove the otoliths, talk about internal and external anatomy,” she says. “If the kids want to see a brain, we’ll show them a brain. We talk about ecosystems, water quality, all of it.”
It’s clear that for Haley, conservation isn’t just a career or a cause—it’s a way of life. Whether she’s running a nursery, leading a Stewards chapter, or helping her kids dissect a fish, she’s building knowledge, connection, and a better future for Texas’ wild places.
“I’ve always believed in giving people access to the outdoors,” she says. “Because once they care, they start to protect it.”
