Ties Uniting People, Communities And Nature

While the challenges being brought by inward population growth and development to Bozeman and Gallatin County, Montana are visceral and epically unprecedented, demographers note that rural counties represent not only the social fabric of identity but also they are the vital threads of biological connectivity. 

Many rural counties in the Northern Rockies find themselves at a crossroads where concerns over economic viability—i.e. job opportunities for future generations—is matched by worries about how an inward migration of people could shatter their sense of place. 

Yes, it’s a traumatic reality well known among indigenous people and now in the 21st century, forces of social change are transforming this corner of the New West. At stake is the rural character of landscapes which has profound implications for the health of wildlife, water, and tax bases affecting the ability of locals to pay for an expanding slate of services ranging from law enforcement and fire protection to road infrastructure and medical facilities essential for elderly residents..

Recently, the Bozeman-based entity Future West, which works with rural counties and communities throughout the Northern Rockies, produced a short video that encapsulates the challenges facing the 21,000-square-mile High Divide. As an overview, it is well worth your time. 

The staff of Future West primarily works on the development side, he said, and few other organizations take this approach.  The 10-minute video, which you can view in its entirety below,  is a visual version of a “High Divide Community Profile” that was presented at a workshop for regional non-profits titled “How to be a Community Catalyst.” 

Recently, Mountain Journal interviewed Glick about how the High Divide provides a lens for thinking about rural communities in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

DENNIS GLICK: Within the conservation community, the High Divide landscape is perhaps best known for being the chain of Idaho and Montana counties that link Greater Yellowstone with the Wilderness areas of Central Idaho and the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem surrounding Glacier Park. From that perspective, it’s a critical corridor for wildlife species moving between three of the nation’s great wildlands. But it’s also an incredible landscape in its own right.  With its vast mosaic of public lands and wide-open ranch and farmland, it’s a dramatic reminder of what much of the West was like before the tsunami of sprawl, gentrification, and industrial recreation began to wash over the region.  

The focus of this video is its iconic rural communities, many of which are in a state of socioeconomic transition. It’s the old west running head on into the new west.  However, unlike other places like Greater Yellowstone, the rural development horse is not so far out of the barn in the High Divide - though it’s nudging at the door.  High Divide residents still have a unique opportunity to take the actions needed to make certain that as that region grows and changes, it retains its precious cultural and natural values. Sadly, that opportunity no longer exists in some other places.  

MOJO: Normally, Idaho kind of exists in the shadow of Wyoming and Montana when talking about the importance of corridors and issues in Greater Yellowstone. What are some of the things you've enjoyed about working with communities and counties on the west side of the GYE?

GLICK: The thing I like best about working at Future West has been the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of individuals – including and especially people of different political strips. And the politics of many of these communities can run pretty conservative. But as I like to say, if you slide off an icy road in the winter, hope that a pickup truck comes by, and not just Suburu Outbacks. 

They are good people and while we may not agree on some things, I respect their love of the land and concern for their home towns. With that as common ground, we have been able to accomplish some pretty neat stuff together, like completing an analysis of the impacts of a 400kv powerline that would have passed through 14 counties done in collaboration with Madison County Commissioners. Or crafting a Payment for Ecosystem Services Program developed with ranchers in the Big Hole Watershed, or facilitating a citizen driven historic preservation plan process for Butte, or designing a project for reclaiming abandoned mine dumps and re-mining the wastes in cooperation with small miners. 

Now we are starting to work with the town of Deer Lodge which, unlike many communities in Greater Yellowstone, is faced with the challenges of reviving its sagging economy and attracting new residents. 

While there are always exceptions to the rule, people in the High Divide – rural landowners, conservationists, agency personnel, community members, for the most part are pretty collaborative folks. I love working with people who are trying to make things better for their towns or rural landscapes, and there is a lot of that going on in the High Divide.

GLICK: That it’s a reality in many communities and it won’t do any good to ignore it. In fact, if it is ignored, chances are things won’t turn out well for the old timers, or the even the newcomers as the natural and cultural amenities that originally attracted them begin to degrade or disappear. There is no way to stop newcomers.

In fact with Covid, massive wildfires on the West Coast, and social unrest in our big cities, amenity migration to this region will most likely only increase. Communities had better plan for it now by putting into place things like effective efforts to provide and maintain affordable housing, rural open land initiatives that include both regulations and incentives, as well as establish entities like community foundations that can capture some of that new wealth and channel it into social services, conservation and economic development projects. 

Some of the communities that seem to be melding the best of the Old West with the best of the new, are those places that have not put their heads in the sand hoping that outsiders would stay away. They have crafted their own vision for the future and invited newcomers - with their financial capital and fresh ideas - to respectfully help them achieve it.

MOJO: Your short film is chock full of fascinating anecdotes, including the data showing that some counties added more houses than people over the last decade. What is the significance of that socially and ecologically? 

GLICK: This region has become the poster child for the phenomenon of second homes (and in some cases, third or fourth homes). You know, Montana in the summer, Santa Barbara in the winter. It’s a phenomenon that’s been around for a while. Now its on steroids. Impacts are varied. Because many of these homes are located outside of town, often in or adjacent to natural features like rivers or the edge of national forests, they can have significant environmental effects. People love to say, “I have all of this wildlife right in my yard.” What they should say is, all this wildlife now has to deal with my impacts on their habitat.” 

We all know that wildfires are becoming a way of life in many rural places. Having to defend homes built in fire prone areas is dangerous, expensive and disruptive to natural processes like periodic wildfire. As pointed out in the video, rural development almost always cost more to service than it generates in taxes. Fighting fire, maintaining roads, sending out school buses and police cars is expensive. Open space like farm and ranchland, is a bargain for taxpayers. As the saying goes, “Cows don’t go to school. And they don’t dial 911.” 

Socially, second home development can have varied effects. Seasonal residents can certainly have some positive economic impacts on local businesses and occasionally on more general community well-being. But it’s difficult if not impossible to sit on a school or conservation district board when you are only around part time. There are exceptions of course, but people who get things done in rural communities show up. Maybe that will change as more interactions go virtual due to the corona virus. But right now, personal relationships are important and deeply valued. They take time to foster. It can be hard (though not impossible) to build those relationships when you are a part timer. 

MOJO: You live in Livingston, Montana outside of the High Divide yet Paradise Valley shares many of the same concerns as those in the beautiful agrarian valleys stretching from Teton Valley, Idaho up toward Custer County, Idaho and western Montana. What do we need to be paying attention to?

GLICK: Though its sometimes considered taboo to talk about regional approaches to things like land use planning, it’s becoming glaringly obvious that we need to do just that. And not just in regards to land use, but also housing, transportation, economic development, recreation and social services – to name just a few of our growing concerns in the Northern Rockies. We need to know how other communities are dealing with the same problems we are dealing with, and how we can work together to solve them. It does no good if, say, one town does a fabulous job of limiting growth, only to send it over to the next town which is totally unprepared to manage it. A more regional perspective, coupled with regional planning and even more important, regional actions, is long overdue. 

MOJO: Has the Covid pandemic changed the way you think about the opportunities and challenges of helping small communities remain economically viable, hold onto their sense of identity and still maintain the high caliber of natural amenities that drew them there? 

GLICK: It has become crystal clear that Covid is accelerating and exacerbating the multiple socioeconomic and environmental impacts of growth and change. It has also become clear that we need to accelerate and increase our efforts to plan for growth in a manner that meets our development need without sacrificing community character and environmental quality. If our rural communities don’t get that now, I don’t think that they ever will. If there is a silver lining at all to this pandemic, it is that it could be a catalyst for long overdue efforts to more sustainably plan for the future.