Conservation Candidates Win in MT Elections
Eric Tegethoff, Producer
Friday, November 5, 2021
HELENA, Mont. -- Results are in, and conservation is one of the big winners from this week's elections in Montana.
In municipal races across the state, Montana Conservation Voters-backed candidates won office. In total, 19 of the 21 candidates the group supported came out victorious, including in Bozeman, Livingston and Whitefish.
Denise Joy, city council member in Billings, said she and many other Montanans were raised to think of themselves as stewards of the land and water.
"Across Montana, I'm sure that becomes a very important part of their voting and important issue as to where the candidates stand on conservation, access to public lands," Joy asserted. "All those kinds of things are fundamental to, really, our lifestyle in Montana."
Joy noted projects are taking place in Billings to aid the environment, such as capturing methane from their landfill and selling it. Conservation-minded candidates won mayoral races in Bozeman, Helena and Missoula.
Stacie Anderson, city council member in Missoula, was among five Montana Conservation Voters-backed candidates for city council. She said conservation is an important part of municipal government.
"There's a lot of things that people don't necessarily realize how conservation interacts with the decisions made at the municipal level," Anderson explained. "We decide land-use decisions and open-space acquisitions and parks."
Anderson added Missoula is working on a number of issues that intersect with conservation, including updating its growth policy.
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