Written by Chris Brick, the coalition's staff scientist, the report is 55 pages of charts and graphs that document significant change in the watershed over the past 25 years - to the economy, the social structure, the environment.
It documents rapid population growth in some of the basin's valleys - Missoula, Flathead and the Bitterroot - while noting minimal growth in places like Silver Bow and Granite counties, and population loss in Deer Lodge County.
Finally, the report notes a truth that is easily documented up and down the spine of the Rocky Mountains - places that grow and prosper are places like Missoula, Ravalli and Flathead counties, with ample natural amenities, access to an educated work force and an airport.
As illuminating as the report is, perhaps its most interesting aspect is its broad-minded, apolitical outlook on life in the watershed. It's neither political rhetoric nor finger-wagging.
In something of a surprise from an advocacy group, the report is a question rather than the answer.
"Although we've been and will continue to be a group that advocates, advocacy isn't enough," said Tracy Stone-Manning, the group's executive director. "I think it's time for the conservation community to turn a corner. We've been incredibly successful at gathering good science and convincing the public about things we don't want. Now it's time to start saying, 'What is it going to take for us all to live here and still have the good things that made this place attractive to us in the first place?' "
And that's why the report, rather than reflecting solely on the health of rivers and streams in the Clark Fork watershed, considers other barometers of the region's condition - the economy, health, crime, education and housing, among others.
"We have to start talking about the watershed not just in terms of environmental health," Stone-Manning said. "All those other factors have an effect on how we live in and treat our watersheds. They're all so interconnected that it no longer serves us well to think in a single-minded way about a watershed where water quality is the only issue."
And that means the coalition sees a much broader mission for itself in the years to come.
"Conservation isn't just about protecting bull trout anymore," Stone-Manning said. "It's also about education and the health and welfare of families. If a mother is on meth and her family is falling apart, she's not very likely to consider conservation issues. It's a cliche, but we're all in this together."
More and more of us are in this together every day.
Driven by growth in Missoula, Flathead and Ravalli counties, the Clark Fork watershed has seen significant population growth in the past two decades. Six of 10 counties in the watershed saw double-digit growth from 1990 to 2000, with Ravalli County adding 44 percent more residents and Lake and Flathead growing by 26 percent.
Not every county grew, however. Deer Lodge County actually lost 8 percent of its population during the decade, and places like Silver Bow and Granite counties grew by only 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
"This is part of the growth and change that's happened up and down the Rockies," said Larry Swanson, associate director of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West and an adviser on the report. "It's unquestioned what it's about - high-quality amenities and environment and fairly high-quality development that takes those values into consideration."
About a third of the state's population - or about 310,000 people - now live in the Clark Fork watershed.
"Like other areas of the Rocky Mountain West, towns and counties near national parks and scenic landscapes grew rapidly, and this is especially apparent in Flathead and Ravalli counties," the report states. "Population also grew in urban areas, such as Missoula and Kalispell, that have access to major airlines and telecommunications, enabling individuals and businesses to locate here while staying connected to outside markets."
The exception is Butte, with its ties to mining and the subsequent problems left by the industry.
"It is undoubtedly stymied by the legacy of over 100 years of intensive mining that is visually apparent throughout town, and that has caused contamination problems in the surrounding landscape," the report states. "Butte's history is proud, but its future depends on adequate cleanup of historic mine wastes."
The report notes the double-edged sword that is population growth, and Stone-Manning said the coalition will be active in trying to blunt growth's downsides.
"Growth can be a really good thing, with more opportunities for employment and culture and such, but we also have to be very careful about how we grow," she said. "You can't just say, 'Hey, traffic is bad.' We've got to be thinking about those sorts of infrastructure things while we still have the chance to. We're going to have more people, so where do we put them?"
Swanson said that growth done badly is ultimately a dark and ugly dead end.
"We have to be vigilant, because while development is difficult, redevelopment is even harder," he said. "Money is hard enough to get, and it's really hard to get for redevelopment. You have to position yourself for growth, and make sure you do it right when you have the chance. I see evidence that places like Ravalli and Missoula and the Flathead are getting it, but it's hard."
Accompanying the population explosion, Swanson said, is a "fundamental paradigm shift" in the economy of western Montana.
"We've clearly transitioned to a point where conservation and economic development have to go hand in hand," Swanson said. "They're not things that are at odds with one another like they may have been perceived to be 25 years ago."
The region, Swanson said and the report notes, is no longer beholden to extractive industries and agriculture. It's not that those jobs have disappeared, although in some counties they have declined. Instead, they've been overtaken by the broad category of jobs called "services and professional." It's a wide-ranging category that includes finance, insurance, business, legal, engineering and management professions, as well as wholesale and retail trade.
Jobs in the natural resource sector, which includes agriculture and forestry, make up only 4.6 percent of the work in the basin, although Granite, Powell and Sanders counties still rely more heavily on those industries, the report states.
Rosalie Cates, director of the Montana Community Development Corp. and an adviser on the report, said that while the new economy places less importance on historic industries such as timber, that industry will always be with us. What's happening, she said, is that the industry itself is changing, learning to make better use of small-diameter trees and capitalizing on fuel-reduction efforts.
"We are seeing the timber side really step up and look for new and innovative ways to do things," she said. "In our business, we don't really see the old black-and-white arguments about timber anymore. We just see people trying to figure out how to make the best of what they see in front of them."
That will be key for communities that want to prosper in the changing watershed, Swanson said.
"The places that were the most dependent on the way we did things 25 years ago, places like Butte, will be the last ones to make the transition," Swanson said. "It's not easy, but there's a group in Butte now that is starting to get it."
The report outlines an economic landscape that protects the scenic and natural values that bring people to the basin, yet promotes vigorous economic growth.
"Increasingly, a protected landscape is becoming a central part of the local economic base. People care where they live. They will start their own businesses to be able to live here," the report states. "While looking into making protection of natural landscapes part of an overall economic strategy, communities could also investigate ways to support working farms and ranches, develop value-added industries, educate their work forces and attract high-wage services such as environmental restoration, finance, engineering, design and computer programming, and small-scale manufacturing and telecommunications industries."
The report makes a sweeping survey of economic, social and environmental conditions across the basin. It's a picture that at once offers hope and challenge.
For all of the watershed's beauty, the environment still faces threats, from dewatered rivers to heavily roaded forests. Valley wildlife habitat is disappearing, plowed under for subdivision development. The Clark Fork itself is still polluted from a century of mining waste, though plans are in place that will remedy at least some of those problems.
Families still have problems. Rural counties are above the state average for high school dropouts, and one in four children in several of the rural counties live in poverty. Domestic violence is far above the state average in counties like Sanders, Lake and Silver Bow.
Montanans, even urban ones, still work for less money than the national average.
Urbanization poses problems for towns and cities that didn't anticipate growth at current rates, the report states. In growing cities, more people means more crime, more traffic problems and more sewage to deal with.
"It is up to all of us now to create new ways for people to live and thrive while keeping western Montana's irreplaceable ecosystems and the basin's social fabric healthy and able to sustain us and future generations," the report states.
Stone-Manning said the coalition will be a partner as the watershed faces those challenges over the coming years.
"We're not going to become economic development people or educators or social workers and find all the solutions in those areas," she said. "But we can be the people who are finding out what's happening, what's worked in other places. We have the time for that. We've proved we can get the word out and let people know what's going on. That leads to action."
That's a far-reaching goal for a group founded to protect a river. But Stone-Manning said the coalition, spurred on by changes that have come to the watershed in the past several decades, is ready for it.
"The days of putting people in little holes and corners and saying this is what they're about is over," she said. "It's one big watershed. We all live in it, and huge changes are upon us. That requires something from all of us. We need to do our part."
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or mmoore@missoulian.com
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