Rod Baumberger

Rod represents the Soil and Water Conservation Society and has served on the Steering Committee since 2005. He was raised with a ranching and farming background in South Dakota and graduated from South Dakota State University with a BS Degree in Range Management.  He is married and has three grown children and eight grandchildren. One daughter lives in Lakewood, Colorado and two sons are Range Management graduates and work for the Bureau of Reclamation and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Rod started working for the Soil Conservation Service in 1966 as a Range Management Specialist.  Other positions held with the Natural Resources Conservation Service were District Conservationist, Area Range Conservationist, Assistant State Conservationist, Northern Plains GLCI coordinator and National GLCI coordinator.  He retired from NRCS in January 2004.  He is a Life Member of the Society for Range Management and a member of the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He is a Certified Range Management Consultant and a Certified Professional Range Management Consultant.  He currently manages a family ranching corporation and is directly involved with the livestock industry.  He does private range management consulting in South Dakota and Wyoming.  He was awarded the USDA Honor GLCI Award, South Dakota Section Society for Range Management Top Hand Award and Outstanding Service Award, Honorary State FFA Degree and recently presented the Friend of the Prairie Award from the South Dakota Grassland Coalition.  Rod and his wife Sharon live in Sturgis, South Dakota.