Dennis Thompson

I grew up a Navy brat, moving around the country every three years, with Florida being our home port. After my own stint in the Navy under the sea, I returned home, met Jill, my wife of 40 years, and began pursuing a career working on the land. Completed BS in Forest Resources and Conservation with major studies in Range Management at the University of Florida.  After graduation, I joined the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS), our children Meghan and Clay arrived, and we started a small commercial cow/calf operation in central Florida. As a field level range conservationist, I was fortunate to have worked with many of Florida’s finest cattle producers and appreciated their willingness to share their successes and failures.

In 1993 we sold the herd, packed our bags and moved to Alexandria, LA  for a job as the State Range Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) formerly SCS.  The National Grazing Lands Initiate provided earmarked federal funding that we used to develop the first grazing schools in the South Eastern US. NRCS developed these in cooperation with industry, LCA, LFGC, and University of South West Louisiana.  By design participants  included; NRCS staff, extension specialist, acidemia, and producers working and learning as teams the ins and outs of management intensive grazing.

During my last 18 years with NRCS, I served as the National Range and Grazing Lands Ecologist in Washington, D.C.. My major goal during this period was to provide the nations’ grazing land owners and managers with the tools and support to apply conservation practices that were cost effective, economically viable and ecologically sustainable.  In partnership with GLCI/NatGLC, NRCS added 100 field level range and pastureland specialists to provide cutting edge technical support for grazing land management.

After retirement Jill, “ my wife” and I moved to a small farm near Bowling Green, VA.. We are developing a grazing operation utilizing fescue and silvopasture that includes wide row spaced longleaf pine and warm season perennial grasses. I remain active with the Society for Range Management, NCBA-ESAP, VFGC, and the Caroline County Farm Bureau Board.

 It is a pleasure and honor to serve as a Board member of NatGLC.