Many Small Towns Get Along Fine Others Feel Significant Impact Of Losing A Major Employer

Many rural towns in North Idaho’s Palouse are getting along just fine, despite the shutdown of economic mainstays such as mills, mines or other natural resource businesses.

But for other communities, the loss of a major employer in a small town can have a significant impact.

That’s the result of a study by three University of Idaho researchers.

Project director Chuck Harris, a professor in the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Range Sciences, and scientists Greg Brown and Bill McLaughlin are taking part in a study of natural resource management policies in the interior and upper Columbia River basin.

“Many mills, for example, have closed, been sold, been opened again, and been closed again in a series of changes over past decades that have not always been related to public land management,” the researchers said. “Community growth, as indicated by population increases, has occurred in many communities that have lost mills, but not in others.”

Some communities are more resilient than others, they said.

In the area studied, small rural communities lost 3 percent in population during the 1980s, but went up an average of 4 percent in the 1990s.

The study will be used in two environmental impact statements prepared by the federal government.