Member Spotlight: Cody Brommerich
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I'm very happy to introduce one of our new WLIA Board members, Cody Brommerich! Cody wears many hats as a Professional Land Surveyor, being the County Surveyor for both Jackson and Trempealeau Counties, in addition to owning his own business - Back Forty Land Surveying LLC. We're glad to have his expertise on the board of directors! Read on to learn more about Cody and his work.
How did you come to your current profession or job?
I was always interested in land surveying. The path to licensure is difficult, as it should be, and one that I’m proud of. Licensure should not be easy when important and complex boundary determinations are a part of the job. It is a minimum 6-year process, with education and experience requirements, along with needing to pass three licensure exams (two federal, one state-specific), and an application for licensure approved by the Board. If someone doesn’t want to go down the licensure path, they can still have a very successful and rewarding career as a survey crew chief, survey technician, CAD drafting, and much more. I’m very thankful to be a part of the geospatial work being done in Wisconsin!
For sure – I personally have done some land surveying but was far from ever going for my license. And other than GIS I feel like it’s difficult to find colleges that offer degrees or certificates in land information professions, very much including land surveying.
The lack of colleges that offer surveying programs is definitely a concern. When I served on the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors (WSLS) Board of Directors years ago, some of the work focused on outreach and conversation with different colleges trying to get programs started, but was unsuccessful at that time, and unfortunately as of right now there are no 4-year surveying programs offered in Wisconsin. Hopefully that will change in the future as there will be endless career opportunities in the surveying profession. The average age of the licensed Wisconsin land surveyor is currently over 60 years old, with many of them retiring in the next few years.
What’s your most favorite part and least favorite part of your job?
My least favorite part is managing tight county department budgets. I prepare and manage the annual budget and all grants for the County Surveyor’s Office along with the Land Information Department as a whole. My favorite part is the boundary work I complete, specifically Public Land Survey System (PLSS) corner retracement, recovery, and restoration. It is very fulfilling when all of the research of historic surveys, field notes, and field work results in the recovery of an original corner (stone, wood post, etc.) or original accessories (bearing tree, line tree, etc.) from the original government surveys in the 1840’s. I also enjoy geodetic control work.
What is the coolest original corner marker that you’ve ever found?
An undisturbed stone in position from the original government survey marking a section corner was awesome to find. I’ve also been lucky enough to find other stones and wood posts marking corners from County Surveyors in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Other old unique monuments include buggy axles, drive shaft housings, cornhusker rolls, and more. Old bearing trees with blazes still visible are also very cool to find.
What’s the best advice someone has ever given you?
I’ve been very lucky to have received a lot of great advice and wisdom from family and loved ones, so it’s difficult to just pick one thing. But one is “You never know what someone is going through. Be kind. Always.”
What do you like to do for fun? (Hobbies, volunteer work, etc.)
I have coached various sports that my kids have participated in. Any activity that my kids and family enjoy, I enjoy. I am also an avid hunter, specifically Whitetails. I am very fortunate to have a lot of family hunting land in western Wisconsin, which is the trophy Whitetail capital of the U.S. I also have a much-anticipated Whitetail and Wolf hunt planned for this fall in Saskatchewan, Canada. Other than that I of course enjoy watching the Packers, Badgers, and Brewers. We try and get to Lambeau for a game every year, and Brewers spring training games are a lot of fun.
What’s something most people wouldn’t guess about you?
I couldn’t think of anything specific to me that is real exciting or unique, but I live in a very rural area of Wisconsin, but yet myself and my family, my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle, another aunt and uncle, and great aunt and uncle all live on the same rural road they all farmed growing up. Additional family is also not far away!
Sounds like you have fantastic family ties, and they have great advice as well! Do your kids want to stick around and either farm or go into land surveying?
Great question! I’m not sure! None of my family farms anymore, my Grandma and Grandpa sold their cattle years ago, and all of the crop land is rented to a neighboring farmer. Farming would be great, but unfortunately with how farming is now, even with having all of the land, starting from the ground up equipment wise would be impossible or near impossible financially. My kids are 9, 6, 2, and 2, so not sure what they’ll be interested in as they get older, but whatever it is they’ll have my support!
Where would you most like to travel to and why?
I don’t have one specific place that stands above the rest, but a few places come to mind. I would love to travel to Alaska, Hawaii, Norway, and Ireland in the future. It would be great to experience the scenic beauty of all of them. I will highlight the most recent place we went. It was recently my kids’ school spring break, and we decided to go to Arizona. It was our first time there, and I was blown away with how scenic certain parts are. The Grand Canyon was of course great. Sedona, AZ was probably my favorite spot, it is very mountainous and of course was nice to get some sun and warm weather for a week.
