The Swan Valley is rural and wild. It is integral to the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, where people and a rich diversity of native plants and animals flourish. People learn from the ecosystem and work to promote its vitality, which maintaining a rural way of life.
Mission
Work to maintain the Swan Valley's unique natural resources and ensure that a vibrant human community can sustain itself within a healthy ecosystem through stewardship, education, economic vitality, and conservation on public and private lands.
SEC will focus on 4 program areas over the next 15 years:
1. Stewardship
Maintain the long-term resiliency of large landscapes on public and private lands; engage the Swan Lands Coordinating Committee.
Maintain a local skilled workforce capable of implementing restoration projects designed to achieve long-term resiliency of forests, streams and wetlands.
Reduce the risk of wildfire on public and private lands.
Involve citizens in public lands management to improve knowledge among managers and the public for better land management.
Maintain campsites and trails in the Mission Mountains Wilderness and Swan Range to protect natural resources and provide for a safe and enjoyable experience.
2. Education
Prepare youth to be safe, healthy and informed adults through outdoor learning.
Elevate knowledge of adults in stewardship, restoration and ecological fundamentals.
Provide skills training to prepare workers for restoration, biomass and energy efficiency jobs.
Create a learning center for the development of expertise in forest stewardship.
Create opportunities for entrepreneurs to learn about and experiment with biomass technology.
3. Economic Viability
Maintain a skilled workforce (see Education)
Explore appropriately scaled biomass opportunities for entrepreneurs to support community viability.
Develop an educational institution that brings people to the valley and provides jobs.
Work with partners on a scenic byway and/or other appropriately scaled tourism opportunities.
4. Land Conservation
Prioritize conservation opportunities and develop a strategy for protecting lands working through the SLCC and Conservation Strategies Committee.
Work with partners to acquire or protect with an easement Section 3, Elk Creek working through the SLCC and CSC.
Work with community members and partners to resolve conservation of other unprotected lands in Montana Legacy Project working through the SLCC and CSC, keeping in mind jobs and affordable workforce housing.
Assist private landowners with conservation easements by serving as a liaison between land trusts and landowner working through the SLCC and CSC.
Work with the community and other partners to address affordable workforce housing.
