Economic Status in Region 2

Economic Status in Region 2

Institutional Narrative: The Institution and Its Mission

Lewis-Clark State College is a public undergraduate college established in 1893. It is located in Lewiston, Idaho (North Central Idaho), a city of 35,000 where two rivers (Snake and Clearwater), two cities and two states come (Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho) together. It is also near the place where two peoples and two cultures came together in friendship and discovery when Lewis and Clark met the Nez Perce Indians. Approximately 3,300 students attend LCSC. It is a unique institution in Idaho because it integrates traditional baccalaureate programs, professional-technical training programs, and workforce training for community support within a single institution. The goal and mission of LCSC is to empower students to apply knowledge and skills in the real world—connecting learning to life. LCSC has a significant impact on the region’s educational, cultural, and economic environment. US News & World Report named LCSC one of the top public, comprehensive, 4-year, colleges in the West.

LCSC draws students primarily from five Idaho counties (Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis and Nez Perce). North Central Idaho has suffered from the impact of economic restructuring with few resources to facilitate diversified economic development. High unemployment in rural areas, severe underemployment throughout the 5-county region, and low educational achievement characterize much of the workforce. Two counties in North Central Idaho have suffered through unemployment rates greater than 12% for two decades. (Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor)

The primary industries in Idaho, mining, timber and agriculture are being displaced. At one time Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene mines ranked among the top ten producers of gold, silver, zinc, and lead in the world. By 1999 however only 741 miners were left from the previous work force of 546,000. (Source: County Profile of Idaho, Education Department of Commerce, 2000).

A historic down turn in lumber prices and available timber harvests created serious economic problems. Lumber and panel prices plummeted in 2000, down 35% from 1999 (Daily Idahonian, 8/7/2000). Crown Pacific LTD in Coeur d’Alene, Louisiana Pacific Corp. in Chilco and Sandpoint, Regulus Stud Mill Inc. in St. Maries, and Jaype Plywood Mill in Pierce have all shut down. Numerous private mill operations have also closed their doors due to cheaper imported lumber from Canada.

The agricultural industries of Northern Idaho have been dominated by grain crops. The price of wheat has dropped from $3.05 per bushes to $2.23 per bushel since 1999. The bottom of the market dropped out from under peas. They can’t be sold because the market price is so low. (Source: Genesee Union Warehouse, a farm cooperative.)

The median income for this area is $32,361. Approximately 13% of the population over 25 years of age holds a Bachelor’s degree. Idaho struggles with unemployment, low wages, place-bound workers and the need to retrain the unskilled labor force. North Central Idaho operates in an Appalachian environment. High unemployment, dying extractive industries, low educational achievement, isolated populations, poor transportation and communication, and two Native American populations present unique challenges and opportunities.

ADDITIONAL INFO RELATED TO ECONOMIC STATUS OF REGION

Description of the specific geographic area to be affected by the project:

The geography of the land is the big player—what it offers and what it demands impacts almost everything we do - where we live, work, and volunteer. The amount of rugged wilderness makes it attractive for recreation, but also makes it extremely difficult to provide basic services. The borders of the area are irregular but extend over 200 miles East to West from Montana to Oregon, and over 200 miles north to south.

Included in this proposal are five counties in North Central Idaho: Nez Perce, Latah, Clearwater, Lewis and Idaho Counties. The combined acreage covers 11,426 square miles or roughly, an area the size of the states of Delaware and Maryland combined. The people who live here, all 28,600 of them, are widely scattered throughout the area, to compare with 5.7 million in densely populated Maryland and Delaware. With 2.5 people per square mile in three of the counties, they easily fit the designation of frontier counties. Such counties have less than six people per square mile.

At the eastern border of the project area are the Bitterroot Mountains, recently brought to national attention by the renewed interest in Lewis and Clark. The Bitterroots are a series of mountains, ridge after ridge, steep and densely forested, described in their Journals as “a sea of mountains.” Crossing the Bitterroots is often considered the most difficult part of the journey for the Corp of Discovery. It is easy to see why the explorers nearly perished.

There are many beautiful rivers in deep narrow canyons in our 3 counties. The Clearwater River system flows west out of the Bitterroots and is a prominent feature in the area. The Salmon River drainage, more popularly know as “The River of No Return,” as well as the Lochsa and Selway rivers are very wild and are loved by white-water enthusiasts. The western boarder is the Snake River, running through a deep rocky gorge aptly called “Hells Canyon,” the deepest canyon in the U.S.

There are three Wilderness Areas in this region, The Gospel Hump, The Frank Church River of No Return, and the Selway-Bitterrroot. Much of the remaining forest land is owned and managed by the State of Idaho or the US Forest Service. Land in Idaho County is 85% Federal ownership and Clearwater County is 70% government owned — 55% Federal and 15% State of Idaho.

Above the deep river canyons in the eastern portions of the 3 county area are beautiful, rolling plateaus or high prairie farm lands with long vistas of the distant mountains—the only portion of the service area that can claim relatively straight roads. The Nez Perce Reservation is the northeast portion of the proposal area. It is an ‘open” reservation meaning much of the land is under private ownership. Nez Perce and Latah Counties are tame by comparison, though there is a 2500 foot drop in elevation when traveling from Moscow to Lewiston.

Our population, like our geography, is unique. People living in rural and remote areas often face economic hardships. The lifestyle impacts health adversely in many ways. Yet, they want to make their communities healthy and desirable places to live. High quality, dependable emergency medical services are vital.

The sparse population is widely scattered over this big, rugged geographical area. Twenty-two thousand residents (22,000) of the 100,533 (2,000 census) live outside of the towns along the river valleys, on mountain “benches” (local vocabulary for a flat piece of ground on the mountain side where one can build a house), and on prairie farms. The population is 96% Caucasian, 2.6% American Indian, 1.8% Hispanic, and .6% other.

The resident population is older than the national average in all three counties. According to the Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor, County Profiles of Idaho 2004, Clearwater County lost 20% of its population during the 1980s “due to cutbacks in the logging industry.

The percent of residents over 65 is high in all 3 counties. Lewis County, a small agricultural county is the highest with 18% over 65; Clearwater has 15% and Idaho County has 17% of its residents over 65. The state average is 11% and the national average is 12.5%. The median ages for the respective counties are 42.5 for Lewis County, 41.7 for Clearwater, and 42.3 for Idaho County. The state median age is 33.

The people who depend on the training and expertise of the emergency care providers in rural/frontier areas are generally older and poorer and do not practice good health habits, compared to urban populations. The local accident rate is high. Life style strongly influences health. The Center for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System gives the following statistics about the rural Idaho population in 2003:

·  15.6% engage in binge drinking

·  31% have high cholesterol

·  20% smoke cigarettes

·  21% don’t use seat belts

·  68% are over weight, and do not meet guidelines according to the Body Mass Index (BMI)

·  59% are at risk based on the BMI

·  22% were obese

·  50% do not receive pneumonia vaccination

·  23% suffer from hypertension

·  6.3% have been told they have diabetes (50% higher than in 1994)

Lewis County, of 44 Idaho counties, ranks 4th in deaths due to coronary heart disease.

Employment Needs in the Area

Currently only one out of five job openings across the state offers that promise to an Idaho single parent with two children, according to a regional analysis by the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations in September 2004. The report stated that “the 19,000 jobs the state [Idaho] has picked up in the past year do not offer the kind of wages that were paid to the thousands of technology workers who lost their jobs during the recession.” The state lost 10,000 relatively high-paying, goods producing jobs and replaced them with 33,000 typically lower-paying service and retail sector jobs. Analysts expect that only about 300 jobs will be created in 2004 that pay at least $15.50 an hour and includes health care.
The local economy based on timber and farming, is seasonal and unstable. Unemployment rates are high, as are poverty rates, and per capita income is low. June 2004 statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor show the unemployment rate for local counties are double and triple the national rates.

Table 1: Unemployment Rates, June 2004
U.S rate / 5.8 %
Idaho State rate / 4.9 %
Clearwater County / 13.1%
Idaho County / 11%
Lewis County / 4.5%

Trends over time demonstrate chronic unemployment due to traditional dependence on farming and logging. Cuts in Forest Service employment have also contributed to the bleak employment picture. With long-term high unemployment, data indicate consistent economic depression over 20 years.

Table 2: Unemployment Rates for 1980 and 1990
County / 1980 / 1990
Clearwater County / 16.7% / 14.0%
Idaho County / 12.7% / 9.0%
Lewis County / 10.4% / 8.3%

The per capita income for the area 25 years ago was 93% of the national average. In 2004 this area’s per capita income was 66% of the national average and 80% of the state average. The trend is in the wrong direction.

Table 3: Per Capita Income for 2001
Three county average / $20,968
State / $25,911
Nation / $31,632

The Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor reports that Lewis, Clearwater, and Idaho Counties are 12%, 13.5%, and 16.3% respectively, below the poverty level.

Table 4: Deaths from Accidents per 100,000
Area / Deaths per 100,000 / Percent Higher in North Central area
North Central Idaho / 57.2
Idaho / 44.1 / 28%
United States / 34.4 / 40%

FROM ANOTHER GRANT

Introduction: Our target area is a land of immense distances and extreme isolation. Small towns nestle among the rolling prairies, huddle in deep river canyons, or perch on high mountain ranges; roads connecting these communities are narrow and treacherous. Bad weather and poor infrastructure further hamper communications. Dependent on basic natural resource-based industries for the last century, the region is reeling from the impact of economic restructuring with few resources to facilitate diversified economic development. High unemployment in rural areas, severe underemployment throughout the region, low educational achievement, and limited access/exposure to technology characterize much of the workforce. While urban centers in Washington and Idaho boomed, our region wallowed in mine and mill closings, declining tax revenues, and the hemorrhaging of skilled young people to urban job markets. Caught between declining local revenues and the loss of timber income from National Forests (Over 70% of land in the region is owned by Federal and State government), we struggle to find strategies that will offer our people an opportunity to change their destiny though access to a quality education.

Both Idaho and Washington have recognized that workforce development is the essential tool for turning around decades of decline and poverty in this region and particularly within the more rural areas. It is to this need, our proposal speaks. Our EOC program will assist these dislocated and displaced workers and their family members in finding good jobs through outreach, counseling, and support services.

Target Area: The specific areas targeted by this program include counties identified by the Idaho Governor’s Rural Task Force (Governor’s Office, 200) as in distress as well as the rapidly growing area around Coeur d’Alene, and the Southeastern counties of Washington, one of which has the highest rate of poverty in the state.

Since the best data on income at the county level comes from the census, and those table are not yet available for 2000, we will supplement data from 1990 with additional resources. As indicated in Table 1, approximately 61,932 people (26.5%) in the region meet the low income criterion, a number that continues to grow, particularly in the distressed counties. These counties and the majority of communities with populations under 1000 exceed the poverty levels associated with more urban areas, yet they have the least local resources with which to aid those impacted by poverty and economic change. According to the recent report, “Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families,” from the Economic Policy Institute (2001), the national median basic family budget is $33,511. In rural Idaho the number is $29,109. Thirty-nine point eight percent of all families in Idaho have incomes that fall below the basic family budget compared to the national rate of 28.9%. In addition, a recent Lewiston Morning Tribune article (August 6, 2001) reported that the median annual income for working women in Idaho (less than $12,500) is the lowest in the nation. Furthermore, the recent report to the Governor’s Task Force on Rural Development reports that the average per capita income in rural counties averages 90% of the state per capita income and 2/3 of the national per capita income.

Table I: Low Income Statistics

County / Income <1.50 Below Poverty Level / Population for Whom Poverty Status was Determined / % With Income <1.50 of Poverty Level
Idaho
Boundary / 2,427 / 6,059 / 30.1.
Bonner / 7,825 / 26,345 / 29.7
Kootenai / 1,5954 / 68,932 / 23.1
Shoshone / 3,813 / 13,727 / 25.9
Benewah / 2,375 / 7,832 / 30.3
Latah / 8,096 / 27,427 / 29.5
Clearwater / 1,864 / 8,026 / 23.2
Nez Perce / 7,401 / 33,216 / 22.3
Lewis / 982 / 3,486 / 28.2
Idaho / 3,914 / 13,359 / 29.3
Washington
Garfield / 423 / 2,198 / 19.2
Columbia / 1,255 / 3,910 / 32.1
Asotin / 5,063 / 17,208 / 29.4
Total / 61,392 / 231,725 / 26.5

*Source: 1990 Census