Thad understands ranching first hand from his upbringing on a working on a cattle ranch in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. His diverse resume also includes a decade of service at the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and another seven years’ in the private sector and Nevada Department of Wildlife. Thad joined NRCS in 2009 as a shared biologist in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Intermountain West Joint Venture eventually transferring to the state biologist position. He has been the SGI state lead in Nevada since the initial roll out of SGI in 2010 and has been very active in sage grouse conservation at the state and local level where he served on a variety technical teams. His work had been instrumental in making SGI and NRCS easement programs a success in Nevada by protecting key sage grouse habitat in the Bi-State and Greater Sage grouse populations.