12 | City of Missoula
solutions,” says Mayor Engen. “The Clark
Fork River is a good example of how we’ve
reformed. The Clark Fork River today is a
place where people gather to have picnics
with their families, or to go fish, or just to
enjoy being outdoors... it has been a great
success.”
SUSTAINING SUCCESS
There is much more that speaks to successful
sustainability practices in Missoula. Invest-
ment in municipal infrastructure now helps
the city ensure its sewer and storm water
discharge is as temperate as possible. Mayor
Engen’s office has also built upon work un-
derway before he was elected, helping to
advance the goals of community coalitions
striving to find solutions to mitigate the im-
pact of climate change. As he explains, “We
had to acknowledge climate change was real
... and we assembled a group of concerned
citizens to help us determine what we could
do today to make a difference tomorrow.”
Those deliberations have since resulted in
beneficial differences for a number of lives,
says City of Missoula Energy Conservation
Coordinator Chase Jones. For example,
through the auspices of the federal Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant
program, Missoula created a program called
“Green Blocks.”
The program prospered through a part-
