Park County (Montana) Environmental Council (PCEC) works with the community to safeguard land, water, wildlife and people of Yellowstone’s Northern gateway through grassroots organizing and community advocacy. PCEC was founded more than 30 years ago when a small group of local residents organized to give the community a stronger voice to engage in conservation issues. PCEC achieves its goals through programs that promote thriving communities by working to implement proactive land use policies; conservation leadership that aims to build a local environmental movement that is equitable, inclusive and diverse; and healthy landscape practices that protect, restore and connect wild lands, water and wildlife for future generations. In 2015, PCEC joined more than 400 local businesses to form the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition which was instrumental in getting federal protections for 30,000 acres of land in the area against mining under the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act.
In 1987, a group of Park County residents came together as an informal group, Crazy Paradise (an amalgam of Crazy Mountains and Paradise Valley). They focused on advocating for and celebrating wild places and wilderness in Park County. Crazy Paradise became Park County Environmental Council (PCEC) in 1989 and was granted nonprofit status in 1990. Operating with a staff and a board of directors, PCEC has taken on some of the most pressing issues facing Park County, including being the first to initiate recycling with the Trash for Trees program and also implementing electronic waste recycling. PCEC also pressed for the cleanup of the Livingston BNSF railyard state superfund site and served as the community liaison with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality during the cleanup effort. In addition to the Yellowstone Gateway Protection project, PCEC has taken on land use planning issues several times over the years, advocating for a sound growth policy and thoughtful development.
For more information:
Uberuaga leaving PCEC, interim director named – Livingston Enterprise, April 2024
Contact
Sarah Stands, Community Resiliency Director
Website
Social Media
Climate Impacts
Air Pollution, Drought, Earthquakes, Erosion-Subsidence, Flooding, Heat, Wildfires
Environmental Justice Concerns
Fighting Development/Destruction of Wildlife/Extinction of Species, Groundwater Contamination, Hazardous/Toxic Sites, Incinerator/Dumping/Landfill, Logging/Biomass, Mining, Sewage/Sewage Treatment, Superfund Sites
Strategies
Community Land Trusts/Land Conservation, Community Organizing and Education, Green Infrastructure, Legal/permit challenges to development, contamination, pollution, etc, Nature-Based Solutions, Policy Reform, Political activism, including protests, petitions, and lobbying, Risk mapping and/or monitoring e.g. flooding/contaminants etc
501c3 Tax Deductible
Yes
Accepting Donations
Yes