Bringing conservation to Washington ag, livestock, forestry industries Keith Griswold, NRCS Assistant State Conservationist for Programs
2025January 2025
By Kevin Gaffney
For Wheat Life

Not many people are fortunate enough to have their career employment place them in locations where they can indulge their favorite hobbies to the extreme.
Keith Griswold would qualify as one of those few. His conservation career has included stops in Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Washington state. An avid hunter and fisherman, Griswold has successfully hunted for elk, moose, grizzly bears, Dall sheep, mountain goats, caribou, and more. He enjoys fishing for salmon, steelhead, trout, ling cod, and yelloweye rockfish. He continues to enjoy camping, hunting, and fishing with his wife, Julie, and his sons, Aaron and Jonah. Their sons are out on their own now, but they all reside in Coeur d’Alene.
Griswold was born in Nampa, Idaho, and raised in The Dalles, Ore. His extended family operates a farm/ranch south of Nampa, where they raise alfalfa, seed crops, and registered Angus cattle. Griswold often worked on the Idaho farm when he wasn’t working for farmers and ranchers around The Dalles, where he graduated from high school.”
There is a wide variety of crops grown in the Nampa area, including row crops, seed crops, orchards, and vineyards.
Between the family operation and working on Oregon farms, Griswold had a wide variety of work experience in his youth. After high school, Griswold attended Oregon State University and earned a degree in rangeland resources management with a minor in forestry. Following college, Griswold was hired by the Umpqua Soil and Water Conservation District in southwest Oregon. His four years there were spent mostly working with the timber industry. Griswold then joined the Idaho Soil Conservation Commission.

“I was hired to work on the total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) and nutrient management plans,” said Griswold. “A TMDL is the calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant allowed to enter a body of water so that it meets and will continue to meet the water quality standards for levels of any particular pollutant.”
After four years working in southern Idaho, Griswold was hired by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). He first worked in Caldwell, Idaho, a diverse region that produces small grains, fruits, potatoes, and other vegetables. The next stop for Griswold was the Cascade, region in Idaho where he worked mostly with livestock and timber industry operations.
Griswold followed that with a long trip north. He spent eight years as a district conservationist in Alaska. That move provided world-class hunting and fishing opportunities in the land of northern lights and midnight sun.
Griswold returned to the “lower 48” in 2016 and has worked in the Spokane NRCS regional office since then. He was named assistant state conservationist for programs in 2019.
“My position involves overseeing contract obligations from the conservation teams in the 11 geographic regions here in Washington state,” said Griswold. “Most of the work we handle is in three specific NRCS programs. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is the most popular one offered by NRCS. It provides financial assistance and direction for protecting and/or enhancing natural resources. It can be used to fix problems or help operators to meet established conservation standards.
“EQIP was initiated in the 1996 Farm Bill. Because of the popularity of the program, there is often a waiting list for applicants. The participation rate for EQIP is twice that for all the other programs offered. If applicants are not accepted, they can try again the following year. EQIP can be used for establishing new conservation practices on farms, such as grass strips, wildlife habitat, divided slopes, terraces, or other erosion control measures.”
Another example of an EQIP project could be for cattlemen to install wireless fencing systems.
Wireless fencing uses GPS mapping and cell phone network service. The cattle must be fitted with special neck collars. The rancher sets the map boundaries on his phone, and when the cows reach the border of the invisible fence, the collar delivers a mild shock to the top of their neck to back them away. The system works in a radius of five to six miles from a controller unit located in each pasture unit.
“The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is the program that provides funds to ag operators who desire to adopt higher levels of conservation,” said Griswold. “Unlike the EQIP program where we are helping to meet standards, with CSP, we provide funds to help them achieve a higher level of soil or resource conservation. Examples of this could be helping to finance adoption of direct seeding or to help pay for precision ag equipment. Another example could be the purchase of a stripper header for grain harvesting.”
Griswold explained that the third main program managed by his office is the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which he said has been very successful in Washington state.
“RCPP requests must be from an organization such as an irrigation district, conservation district, or a group of growers or producers,” said Griswold. “It is basically a one-to-one fund matching program to double the impact of the project they are working on.”
Griswold pointed to the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program, which is an ongoing project of the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District to replace irrigation wells with water from the Columbia River. The RCPP has funded close to $50 million for this project. He appreciates how the NRCS programs are able to make a real difference for participants.
“When you can clearly see the progress in production or in the reduction of erosion, that really hits home with me,” said Griswold. “Whether we are working with cattlemen, orchardists, grain growers, vineyards, or oyster farmers, we can help make significant improvements to their operations.
“I believe most ag operations in our state are doing a pretty good job with conservation plans and practices. We help to promote our programs with information booths at county fairs, ag shows, and conventions and with presentations at cattlemen association meetings and soil conservation district events. This helps generate more interest for our programs.”
Griswold said the most important issue right now is for Congress to get busy and pass a new farm bill as soon as possible. Since agriculture is already operating on an extension of the current farm bill, he feels it is important to get the new bill passed so the Farm Service Agency and the NRCS can begin implementation of the bill.
For questions or comments concerning NRCS programs, Griswold can be reached at (509) 323-2971.