Flathead Basin stewardship index : working draft

Waller, Amy

The Flathead Basin Stewardship Index is an effort to monitor the ecological health of ourregion. It provides a baseline snapshot by which to measure the effectiveness of stewardship efforts. The Flathead Valley is changing, seemingly at a whirlwind pace. Our challenge as a community is to accommodate change while maintaining the values that hold us to this special place. But what has changed? What changes matter the most, both on the land and to the people? To measure change, one needs a benchmark—a standard by which to compare future conditions. That is the purpose of the Flathead Basin Stewardship Index. The Flathead Basin Stewardship Index is an effort to monitor the ecological health of our region. It provides a baseline snapshot by which to measure the effectiveness of stewardship efforts. The goal of stewardship is to achieve sustainability—an economy and way of life in which both people and nature are thriving. This goal is both rich with opportunities and a test of our innovation and vision. The Flathead Conservation Roundtable, an informal network of conservation organizations in the Flathead Valley, hosted a workshop in 1999 to develop key indicators of the ecological health of the Flathead Basin. Forty-eight scientists and resource managers helped craft the indicators. Workshop participants identified three key indicators: Landscape Change, Water Quality, and Key Plant and Animal Species. Sub-indicators were developed to further define these three indicators. The index is a first effort to assemble available information that can be tracked in the future to help assess trends. The Roundtable intends the index to measure how things are, not dictate how they should be. We encourage you to explore this index. We believe it is rich with useful information. However, it is also a work in progress. We welcome feedback. With time, energy, and thought, we hope to make future versions of the index even more precise and useful. Meanwhile, we trust it will add to our understanding of the relationships between the land, the people, our well-being, and quality of life.