1. Connections Between Community and Environment
A Report on Social, Economic
and Environmental Indicators
In the Clark Fork Basin
Mapping by Rankin Holmes, Big Sky Conservation Institute

2. Population growth is concentrated in a few counties

3. Compare migration of new residents with natural amenities …

4. Per capita income is up overall, but poverty still exists

5. New jobs in the basin are primarily in services,
especially in the more urban counties.
Flathead County
Lake, Missoula, and Ravalli counties
show similar job trends

6. It’s a different story in the rural counties…

8. More economic indicators…

9. less affordable for the average family
Houses are becoming
less affordable for the
average family
Ravalli

10. Social indicators tend to follow economic indicators

11. How do environmental indicators tie in?
The areas containing the highest proportion of protected lands are also some of the areas that have seen the highest rates of population growth, and can claim robust economic indicators.

12. Meanwhile we still need to clean up problems of the past,

13. We need to mitigate
existing problems,

14. And we need to work toward solving current and evolving problems caused by growth.

15. That includes preserving those amenities
that fuel economic growth in our basin

16. Environmental health
and community health
are inextricably linked.
We need to sustain both.