Eby planning new adventure

Dave Eby is about to try a new adventure, but only part time.

This is the last week he will be working full time as a soil conservationist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Then he will retire, but ease into it by continuing to work part time with NRCS and stay involved, but have more freedom to do other things. Eby also plans to spend some time putting conservation methods in place on the 60 acre ranch he and is wife own.

He started working with the agency 24 years ago after 10 1/2 years in the air force. Eby and his wife had decided it was time to settle in one place to raise their children. Soil Conservation in Orofino has been good for that. He has only spent one year away from the Orofino office since he started. While many of those who work as soil conservationists find themselves being pushed to move from one office to another to go up the career ladder, Eby's goal was to settle in one place.

Eby started as a technician at a time when soil conservation was the focus of the agency. Later he became a soil conservationist. He said the best part of the job is being out "in the field" working with farmers and ranchers on their property. The focus of his job has expanded too. Where it used to be focused on farmers and ranchers, USDA has a number of programs to help landowners with 20-40 acres manage their property such as tree planting, pasture seeding and cross fencing.

The major crops in Clearwater County are wheat, barley, lentils, grapes and canola. They are all dry land farmed. There are three primary areas with farming: Cavendish, Weippe and Gilbert. He estimates about 15 percent of the crop land in the county has been put into the Conservation Reserve Program.

Snow survey has been another important part of his job. He used to go to remote sites about every two weeks during the snow season to check measurements. Now the remote trips are only done about twice year. Part of that is due to costs for flying to the sites in a helicopter. Automated Snotel sites record and upload the data to satellites during the rest of the year.

Technology has become big part of soil conservationists' jobs now. Eby said he used to spend about 80 percent of his time "in the field" and 20 percent in the office. It is about the opposite now with most of his time using a computer. That has prompted him to get involved in more focused physical fitness activities such as jogging and weight lifting.

He said he has enjoyed working with people like those in the Orofino office.