JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) awarded one million dollars in funding to Friends of The Bridger Teton during the board’s regular meeting yesterday, March 10.
Friends of The Bridger Teton asked for the funding based on increased visitation on the Bridger-Teton National Forest over the past several years.
“Without strategic, scalable interventions, we risk irreparable harm to the very resources that make Teton County exceptional,” Scott Kosiba, Ph.D., executive director of Friends of The Bridger-Teton, said during the meeting.
The funding will be used for a three-part program that includes outreach and education, ambassadors and long-term program sustainability.
Kosiba explained that the $1 million dollar request reflects the size of the national forest, the lack of funding to date and the scale of the problem. About 51% of Teton County is National Forest land.
“Just being frank, the national forest systems do not have the same level of funding that our friends in the national parks have enjoyed,” said BTNF Supervisor Tricia O’Connor. “We have always had to rely on our partners.”
According to the JHTTB annual report, from June 2020 to July 2021, a total of $6,884,687 in Lodging Taxes were collected. The town and county received $2,753,875 from the lodging tax and JHTTB received $4,130,812.
The beauty of this is, both by leveraging lodging tax dollars but also through these other mechanisms we are funding programs by visitors for visitors.
-Scott Kosiba, PhD.
Kosiba explained that the program would build and expand on outreach already being done by other organizations. Nearly half of the funding would be used on an extensive ambassador program including three full-time wildlife ambassadors, 20 full-time summer camping and trail ambassadors and 10 winter Teton Backcountry Alliance (TBCA) ambassadors.
This winter was the second year of the TBCA ambassador program. The ambassadors help to educate backcountry users at various access points, most notably, Teton Pass.
“This funding would allow the program to be brought to another level,” said Gary Kofinas, chairperson of the TBCA steering committee.
location while a ‘+’ denotes a location where the BTNF has previously staffed volunteers but not through the ARR
program. Note: Two ambassadors have previously been stationed at Teton Pass/Philips Ridge and two additional
ambassadors are required. Image: Friends of Bridger Teton
“Last year ambassadors at Curtis Canyon, Shadow Mountain and Toppings Lake extinguished over 200 abandoned campfires in those three areas alone. any one of which could have been a catastrophic wildfire,” Kosiba said.
Kosiba also explained that the program is aimed to be self-sustaining and the initial funds from JHTTB will be used to meet the immediate needs.
Proposed funding mechanisms include donation kiosks at high use summer and winter areas, implementing opt-out donations at rental companies that use the national forest and wedding permitting fees.
Kosiba estimated that donation kiosks could collect between $600,000 to $700,000 and wedding permits could collect between $100,000 and $200,000 annually.
“The beauty of this is, both by leveraging lodging tax dollars but also through these other mechanisms we are funding programs by visitors for visitors,” Kosiba said.
Kosiba said about one-quarter of the total funding could be spent ahead of June 30, 2022, the end of the fiscal year.
The board passed a motion to provide 25% of the funding from the 2022 budget and the remaining 75% will be from the 2023 budget.
Following the board’s decision, Kosiba said, “I expect that as a community, we’ll look back on this moment as a true shift in the way we steward our public lands in Teton County. Friends of the Bridger-Teton is thrilled that the JHTTB stands in support of our efforts and those of our partners to help visitors and residents alike recreate safely and responsibly on our National Forest lands. “
