Intro

Published: 2022
By Richard Balestri

Due in part to its business-friendly environment and picturesque mountains, rivers, and lakes, Flathead County has continued to attract new businesses, residents, and tourists during the past several years. Specifically, between June 2020 and 2021, Flathead County experienced a 3.5% increase in population with more than 3,500 new residents. This influx exacerbated an already acute affordable housing shortage. Because many new residents work remotely or are retired, these new arrivals failed to provide significant relief for labor challenges experienced by Flathead County’s wide range of employers. Flathead County’s growing economy includes the following industries: retail, health care, information technology, manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, and education. Most of the aforementioned industries, except tourism, have experienced steady, continued growth over the past several years. On the contrary, during the pandemic, primarily domestic tourism to Flathead County and Glacier National Park increased significantly. Still, this demand appears to have peaked during the Summer of 2021 and is moderately decreasing to a more sustainable, albeit higher, level than before the pandemic. MSU Extension in Flathead County and its associated programs benefit from excellent support from all three county commissioners and strong working relationships with the county fairgrounds manager and the School District #5 agricultural educators / Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisors. New families moving into Flathead County are most interested in MSU Extension 4-H youth development, gardening, and food preservation programs.