The tribe and a coalition of fishing and environmental groups oppose U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to dredge at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers at Lewiston. The tribe contends the corps must complete an environmental impact statement that fully evaluates the impacts from dredging, a maintenance measure to deepen the navigation for barges. “The Snake River is not strictly an agricultural transport system as the corps believes,” said Samuel Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. “The corps may not ignore or postpone analysis of the impact dredging will have on water quality and the protection of imperiled salmon and steelhead … integral to the spiritual, physical and economic health of the Nez Perce.” The National Marine Fisheries Service, charged with reviewing the project, has told Port of Lewiston officials it wants a formal consultation process that could put off the work for a year and raise prices for shippers. “The improvement of habitat is what is sorely needed and what is mandated,” Penney said. “The corps’ proposed action is in direct opposition to the needs of salmon.”
Arduous economic conditions in timber-dependent Clearwater County were on exhibit for Idaho legislators during a three-day tour of north-central Idaho which included a visit to Lapwai and a tour of the tribe’s Head Start school and the Appaloosa horse breeding facility. The North Idaho Chamber of Commerce brought the legislators to visit a part of the state many had never seen. “Even though the cities are prospering, the rural areas are struggling,” Sen. Evan Frasure, R-Pocatello, said. Frasure said that in Pocatello the unemployment rate is about 5 percent and new businesses have been slow to develop. In Clearwater County, the unemployment rate hit 20 percent following the closure of Potlatch Corp.’s Jaype mill in September. “We thought we were the slow end of the state,” Frasure said. But after a tour of the region he said there are other areas struggling more than his own. Darrel Bolz, a newly elected representative from Caldwell said areas like Caldwell are prospering, sometimes making it hard to believe that other areas are suffering. He said he wants to help the natural resource-based economies in the state. “So many of the legislators have never been north of Boise,” North Idaho Chamber of Commerce president Lorraine Roach of Grangeville, said.
