Rhett has a BS in biology from Iowa State University and an MS in biology from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Rhett’s master’s work was a dendrochronological study of water level impacts on peatland trees in Marshall County, MN. After graduate school Rhett was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota Crookston where he taught natural resources and botany courses. Before he joined Midwest Natural Resources, Rhett managed prairie areas in Western Minnesota, which included restoration, prescribed fire, invasion management, and ecological monitoring.
Rhett has a background in prairie ecology, peatland ecology, disturbance ecology, plant invasion ecology, plant community and wetland classification, vegetation sampling and monitoring, and teaching. Rhett’s interests include wetland plants, graminoids, rare plant species, and the geology of Northwest Minnesota. For 12 years Rhett has been assisting with censuses of the western prairie fringed orchid in Northwest Minnesota.