JACKSON, Wyo. — Abundant wildlife, vast open spaces and unparalleled access to exceptional recreational opportunities. These extraordinary values define Jackson Hole and in large part are a credit to visionaries, including Horace Albright and John D. Rockefeller Jr., who worked to create and set aside Grand Teton National Park.
In more recent decades, we can thank the Jackson Hole Land Trust and the many dozens of private landowners and donors for protecting thousands more acres, including gems such as the Walton Ranch, Spring Gulch Meadows, and Fish Creek Ranch, to name just a few. Their efforts have preserved iconic views, open space, and wildlife corridors that we now enjoy in perpetuity.
This is a gift to us and future generations. But there is more work to do. Tens of thousands of acres remain open to commercial and residential development, and the pressures are mounting.
Today our community has an opportunity to advance a conservation legacy with the Teton County Land Conservation Opportunities specific purpose excise tax initiative. If approved, it will provide Teton County and the town of Jackson with $8 million to protect open space, wildlife habitat, agricultural uses and public access for hunting and recreational opportunities.
It is anticipated that the Conservation Opportunities funding, which is explicitly called for in the Teton County/Jackson Comprehensive Plan, will be used to help protect some of the more than 4,500 acres of Wyoming state lands that are owned and held in trust for the benefit of the state’s public school system. These “schools sections” include extraordinary properties, such as 640 acres on the west flank of Munger Mountain that is critical elk calving habitat and outstanding hunting terrain, a 640-acre parcel adjacent to Grand Teton National Park near Kelly, 350 acres that rise above town on the southern slopes of East Gros Ventre Butte and 640 acres on the Village Road with valuable spring creeks and an elk migration corridor.
The state has an obligation to maximize its financial return on these properties and has made it abundantly clear that it aims to do so. More alarmingly, the state contends that it does not need to comply with local zoning or land use restrictions. Just this past spring the state approved an 800-unit self-storage facility and seasonal lodging on the Village Road parcel. These projects were opposed by the county and many members of the public, but to no avail. The front portion of the Village Road site has now been leveled and covered in gravel in preparation for the 800 shipping containers that will become the storage facility.
More development looms. Ten miles down quiet and scenic Fall Creek Road, on the Munger Mountain parcel, a commercial lodging company called Under Canvas has proposed an enormous glamping resort in the heart of elk calving habitat. If approved, the lodging facility would become the single-largest resort development in Teton County. The proposal includes “upwards” of 90 luxury tent platforms accommodating up to 250 people a night, with on-site dining facilities, laundry service and housing for 60 or more staff members. This proposal is basically a seasonal hotel without any of the zoning or landuse safeguards that apply to any other hotel or lodging facility in Jackson. It would forever change the Munger Mountain area and the character of the Fall Creek Road corridor.
These are just two examples of uses that have been proposed to the state for its Teton County parcels. The possibilities for additional development proposals that support the state’s mandate for these parcels are vast and unpredictable. However, we as a community have an opportunity to shape our future and conserve what matters.
Our community has the opportunity to work with the state to achieve its mandate while preserving these lands. It will require adequate funding to compete against proposed developments, but this funding will accomplish both preserving land and supporting the state’s public school system in a meaningful way. The proposed SPET funding will not be sufficient to outcompete the largest proposals for development and will have to be paired with significant private philanthropy.
The Conservation Opportunities SPET gives our community a seat at the table along with resources that can be leveraged to protect and advance our extraordinary conservation legacy. It’s our opportunity to ensure these lands are preserved now and in the future. The pressure for development in the valley is growing stronger, and this is our moment to carry forth the incredible conservation legacy of those who have done so before us. Please vote yes on the Teton County Land Conservation Opportunities SPET.
