A message from County Commission candidate Mark Newcomb:
JACKSON, Wyo. — My love affair with Teton County’s public lands spans three generations.
It began in an August snowstorm, high on the Grand Teton, in the company of my father. I was 13. A cold front had slammed the mountains overnight, changing our objective from the Grand to the Enclosure, its lone satellite peak. My dad, an Exum guide, had been shepherding aspirants in the Tetons since 1956. Reassured by his calm confidence, I followed him into the mists, sleet and snow. As we scrambled higher, clouds periodically shrouded the icy, sparkling spires above us. I’d never seen a landscape like it, as ominous as it was beautiful. My passion for this land, in all its mystery and majesty, was born.
Forty-five years later, on an early morning in August, I huddled with my family on the Lower Saddle. A brutal wind had made sleep impossible, but I knew we would climb out of it as we left the venturi of the Saddle. At the summit, hunkered out of the wind, I shared a view with my sons that my 75-year-old father had shared with me on his final ascent of the peak, and countless times before. Far below, the Snake wound its way through our beloved valley. A vista of wide-open plains and forested mountains spread out to the east as far as the eye could see.
Almost all of it is public land.
If I’ve done my job right, the love, respect and appreciation for these places that I learned from my father will take root in my sons, too. Given their outdoor pursuits — fishing, camping, biking, skiing, swimming in cold, clear waters — they might already be on their way.
But there’s another thing I hope they understand: Passion for these lands is just a start. Threatened by pro-development interests and proposals to sell them off, their protection requires elected officials whose love for them is matched by an ability to fight effectively on their behalf.
As a professional guide, I worked with public land managers here and in Alaska for 20
years. As your county commissioner, I’ve been involved with public land issues from the day I entered office. I immersed myself in proposals to develop the Moose-Wilson corridor, then led a three-year effort to resolve the long-languishing management designations of Wilderness Study Areas in the Palisades and Shoal Creek. I mastered the fundamentals of the National Environmental Policy Act and provided effective comments on the proposed expansion of Turpin Meadows. Now, I’m fighting the expansion of the privately held Grand Targhee ski resort on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. As our community enters the process of revising the Bridger-Teton Forest Management Plan, my experience, coupled with my passion, will ensure we engage, fully and effectively, in the fight to protect these places — for the benefit of future generations as well as ours.
Public lands are for all of us. They must be kept in public hands. In the complicated
process of deciding their future, emotions run high. When I chaired the final meeting on the Wilderness Study Areas designation, the chambers were packed inside and out. With defenders of capital W Wilderness on one side and proponents of multi-use on the other, it felt like steering a ship between Scylla and Charybdis. Despite an atmosphere as tense as I’ve ever felt in the chambers, a shared love of our public lands carried the day. The comments remained respectful, the meeting orderly, and we achieved consensus that public land must be protected for public use at all costs.
These lands are where we hike, climb, hunt, fish, raft, kayak, canoe, ski, sled, explore and find solitude. They’re where some of us make a living. I brought hundreds of people into them over 20 years as a guide. My father taught avalanche science for decades, instructing thousands more about the perils of unstable snow. When he climbed with his grandsons for the final time, at age 81, it wasn’t just a day in Grand Teton National Park; it was a generational transfer of wisdom built over 70 years.
That responsibility is mine now. I don’t take it for granted. This primary season, I ask for your vote so I can continue the fight.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewcombTetonCounty/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-newcomb-9737a510/
