Park County, Montana

As part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Park County residents (pop. 17,790) are adept at living with natural disturbances, including everything from bison mowing down fences, to flooding from ice dams on the Yellowstone River, to wildfire. In the last three decades, more than one million acres of land in Park County have burned.

As a primary gateway to Yellowstone National Park and home to world class trout fishing, hunting, and some of Montana’s most spectacular landscapes in the aptly named Paradise Valley, Park County is also under increasing development pressure.

Partners in Park County are using the CPAW process to better understand Montana’s land use planning tools that can help a community become more fire-adapted, and to improve local understanding of the economic costs and benefits of fire mitigation strategies. In 2023 CPAW helped Park County apply for a federal grant to support its wildfire risk reduction efforts.

In response to needs expressed by Park County and other CPAW partners, CPAW conducted three research projects:

• A synthesis of the regulatory framework and land use policies permitted in Montana for wildfire mitigation;
• Quantification of the full, long-term community costs of wildfire, such as impacts to tourism, business revenue, infrastructure, property values, and ecosystem services; and
• Quantification of the costs of constructing ignition-resistant homes.

This research will help partners in Park County and elsewhere devise efficient and proven fire-adapted community strategies.

Snapshot

• 2017 CPAW Community
• Population (2014): 15,708
• Growth Rate (2000-2015): 12.5%
• Fuel Type: Douglas-fir, mixed spruce-fir, sagebrush, grassland

Resources

• Planning Tools to Reduce Montana’s Wildfire Risk – a report for Park County
• Park County Growth Policy Updates
• Park County CWPP (2014)