Idaho Rivers United says breaching would not hurt the local economy and would reshape region

August 6, 2026
By Eric Barker, Outdoor and Environmental Editor

Leaders of Idaho Rivers United received a mixed reaction Wednesday to their presentation of an economic study that found breaching the four lower Snake River dams to save salmon and steelhead would not drag down the local economy.

Some audience members at the Red Wolf Golf Course in Clarkston spoke in favor of the idea during a friendly discussion following the presentation and said it could reshape the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley for the better. But others called the study flawed and said other actions should be used to recover threatened and endangered spring chinook, sockeye, steelhead and fall chinook that spawn in the Snake River and its tributaries.

“I believe it’s biased because pro dam breachers hired pro dam breachers to conduct a study and amazingly when they paid them, they came up with the data they wanted,” said Rick Hanks of Clarkston.

The study commissioned by the group and performed by Headwaters Economics of Bozeman, Mont., reasons that because the economy in Nez Perce and Asotin counties is largely driven by industries unrelated to the dams, removing them would not be economically disruptive.

It names government, health care and manufacturing as accounting for 42% of the jobs in the two counties. In contrast, agriculture, utilities and transportation — sectors the study names as closely tied to the dams, account for about 7.4% of regional jobs and have shown little growth in recent decades.

The same goes for the economy in both counties. According to the study, Asotin and Nez Perce counties have not kept pace with the economic growth of northern Idaho and eastern Washington as a whole and they lag behind in key categories like population growth, employment, per-capita income and poverty reduction in addition to having an aging population when compared to the larger region.

The study even says dam breaching might provide an economic boost to the valley. To back that up, it points to other dam removal projects in the Pacific Northwest where it says communities have seen per-capita income and nonlabor income growth and projects the same would happen here.

Stephen Pfeiffer, wild fish and hydropower policy manager for Idaho Rivers United, said dam breaching combined with robust investments from the federal government on par with the vision outlined by Rep. Mike Simpson who authored a $34 billion plan that would breach the dams and fund renewable energy, transportation and recreation infrastructure while mitigating affected industries and communities would be a chance for the communities to redefine themselves.

“The vision that I see for this region is one in which we have more fish, we have more energy generation, and we have more infrastructure to maintain this region’s exports to the world,” he said.

Nez Perce County Commissioner Joe Gish said the study left out hospitality which he said includes cruise ship visits, as a contributor to the economy and said that losing barge transportation would close the door to at least one company he said is looking to relocate to the area. That move is contingent on the availability of container shipping from the Port of Lewiston, something that has not been available for many years but port advocates believe may return contingent on developments at the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6.

Gish said a return of container shipping would benefit the manufacturing sector.

“I think that that would explode if we got containers moving out of the port again,” he said.

Gish welcomed the discussion and said he could support dam breaching contingent on completed investments in transportation infrastructure.

“If they released those funds, repaired the track from here through the different ports down the river system to Terminal 6 so that the track was smooth and they invested in smooth ride cargo train cars and they got that in place and it was economical to ship on that, I think everybody would be like ‘yeah let’s do it.’ But we need to see that investment before the dams go out.”

Richard Skully of Lewiston said most people don’t remember what the Snake River was like before the dams. He said there were five privately owned beaches and river recreation was robust. But he lamented that people who never got to see the river before the dams, don’t know what they are missing.

“It was great. We loved the beaches, we loved the rapids, we loved everything fun.”

Greg McReynolds, executive director of the group, said breaching dams and making the investments to replace their services and keep communities whole is an act of faith akin to what drives salmon to make their perilous journey to return from the ocean and spawn in their natal streams.

“They are not doing it for themselves. They are doing it for what comes next. They are doing it for another generation and we are in that same moment if we want to have abundant electricity, if we want to have abundant salmon, if we want to have abundant jobs and opportunities, we have to start building something that a lot of us are not going to live to see.”

Marvin Dugger, an active member of the pro-dam group Citizens for the Preservation of Fish and Dams said even though he disagrees with Pfeiffer and McReynolds, he appreciates the discussion.

“We don’t agree with them on this situation but I like them,” he said. “This is what we need to do to figure this out and that’s what makes our country great is that we as a people can come together and talk things out.”

Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Friendly discussion follows breaching presentation