Spring is flying by! Thank you to everyone who showed up and supported PCEC this past month. We are incredibly proud of our recent events and wanted to share a few highlights that left our hearts swelling with pride for our community.

L-Town Soup

We kicked off with PCEC’s annual grassroots micro-granting dinner; our community raised $13,265 and funded eight local projects! Congratulations to all the groups that pitched–we couldn’t put on this event without our dreamers and community-weavers.

Our 1st place winner–The YES Pass–received $5,000 to fund sponsorship opportunities that make local creative and educational skill-building camps, workshops, and more accessible to youth who couldn't previously afford them.

Our 2nd place winner–Crazy Mountain Ventures–received $3,000 to support their mission of leading young people on educational backcountry treks in the Crazies, with funds going towards improved marketing and scholarships for students in need.

Our 3rd place winner–Livingston Ice Skating Association–received $2,000 to expand their Youth Hockey and Learn to Skate programs through improved advertising, instructor training and compensation and equipment purchases.

The truth is, everyone wins when our community shows up, and the other five participants each received over $650 to fund their projects. We extend our gratitude to our long-standing and new partners, AMBWest Community Fund, Neptunes Brewery, Food Works, Happy Trash Can, Community Closet, and The Main Print Shop. We can’t wait to hear more pitches from our community at next year’s L-Town Soup!

Gardiner One in Five Hundred Film Screening and Community Panel

As we approach the four-year anniversary of the 2022 flood, we are reminded of how far we’ve come. It’s a rare opportunity that we get to gather, reflect on, and heal from these shared moments. PCEC hosted a film screening of One in Five Hundred which highlights the 2022 flood’s devastating effect on Yellowstone National Park and surrounding gateway communities–Gardiner, Silver Gate, Cooke City, and Red Lodge. After the screening, we engaged in a community conversation with Bill Berg (Gardiner Resident and Former Park County Commissioner), Cam Sholly (Yellowstone National Park Superintendent), Stacey Joy (Owner and Operator of Wonderland Cafe & Lodge), Wendy Weaver (Montana Freshwater Partners Executive Director), Colter Lumley (Gardiner High School Senior) and Hugo Sindelar (Filmmaker).

We were humbled learning from experts and leaders; and the chance to hear directly from the community voices most impacted by the flood. Conversations focused on remembrance, community resilience, current flood mitigation efforts, shared resources and how we can better prepare for future events. Because we know it’s not if another flood will occur, it's when.

Walk and Roll to School Day

The Friday morning before-school energy in Livingston could be felt as PCEC teamed up with the Livingston Public School District for a Bike/Walk to school event. As part of the national Walk, Bike & Roll to School celebration, over 15 dedicated volunteers and mentors led three "bike bus" routes, ensuring a safe and spirited two-mile commute for youth. As per usual, Dan Bailey's went above and beyond by riding alongside the students, providing mobile repairs, and handing out ice cream vouchers and raffle prizes.

There is something incredibly moving about seeing a community rally together so visibly, especially when the result is a sea of bikes and a whole lot of morning energy. It’s a powerful testament to what happens when adults simply show up to share in the fun. 130 students arrived at school with speakers booming and the sun shining, leaving almost every bike rack in sight at capacity.

Bear With Me Storytelling

At the end of the day, it’s stories—not research papers or the newest framework—that truly teach us how to connect and understand our shared experience. Here in Park County, sharing a landscape with Grizzly Bears comes with plenty of responsibilities and surprises, but it also creates the exact kinds of moments that turn into unforgettable stories. PCEC teamed up with Elk River Arts and Lectures and Bex Frucht to host the storytelling event, Bear with Me–An Evening of True Life Tales From Bear Country.

We heard stories from a variety of locals who have literally run into bears, who work with them, who live alongside them, and whose curiosity could have gotten the better of them. Above all we heard about bears that created moments that will never be forgotten. Coming together and hearing stories created a great way to connect with not only each other, but to also gain an understanding of what deep connections and responsibility we have to the wild neighbors we share a home with.

Livingston Loves Trees Spring Planting

With the help of our tree-enthusiast volunteers, we planted 57 trees this spring bringing our total planted over the last five years to 438 trees. These trees represent more than obvious benefits, like shade, aesthetics of city streets, or even climate resilience; it connects neighbors in a way no other program we have does.

Over three days, our tree team planted bur oaks, Japanese tree lilacs, lindens, chokecherry, hawthorns, crabapples, tartarians, honey locusts and Norway maples. We planted trees at Park High, Sleeping Giant Middle School, Winans Elementary, Northside Soccer Field, and boulevards scattered throughout town increasing our urban forest diversity one tree at a time.

Year by year the Livingston Loves Trees initiative increases our community forest’s resilience and engages people of all ages. Thank you to all the volunteers, tree buds, tree adopters, the City of Livingston, Paradise Landscape & Stone, Nate Johnson, Joe Armbrust, Shields River Farm & Nursery, and Jodi Litchfield for helping make our town healthier, more resilient, and more beautiful. And a big thank you to Food Works, B-Sides, and 49er Diner for providing food for our planting crews.

We are still in need of volunteers for our upcoming Livingston Loves Trees health checks. If you’ve been looking for a meaningful way to get involved contact Taylor@pcecmt.org.

Roam Book Tour Panel

To close out a busy May, we gathered at Elk River Books for a special community conversation. Alongside the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and Mountain Journal, PCEC welcomed author Hillary Rosner to discuss her book, Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World. The evening beautifully connected literature and history to both global conservation efforts and on-the-ground action happening right here in our own community. We explored critical topics like animal movement, expanding development into wild places, and the urgent need for wildlife corridors.

During both the audience Q&A and the panel discussion, the conversation revolved around the importance of large, intact landscapes and maintaining connections between them to allow for historic migration corridors to remain viable for wildlife, both in Park County and throughout the world.

These corridors, described by Rosner as the arteries of any ecosystem, are vital for wildlife to thrive and adapt to a changing climate. We must work to protect the many that are still intact and do the work needed to reconnect those that have been blocked by physical barriers like roads and fences, or invisible ones like political boundaries.

Seeing this community show up so beautifully gives us the power and momentum needed to sustain all of our other efforts. This deep level of community care and connection is exactly what true resilience looks like.

A Spring Recap from PCEC