Since October, 2015, Tom Schott has worked for the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District as a Registered Professional Forester.  Prior to this, Tom worked for 8 years as a private consultant providing forest/habitat restoration plans and conservation planning training through independent contracts with NRCS. He worked as a Federal forester/conservationist for NRCS, US Forest Service and BLM in Northern and Southern California, Montana, and Minnesota. He served as the NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection Coordinator for the Southern California Watershed Recovery Project, a multi-year, area wide plan to reduce hazardous fuels and post fire erosion. He served 17 years as the NRCS District Conservationist for Mendocino County, where he worked on many watershed planning and fish habitat restoration projects.  Tom graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry with a minor in Forest Ecology.