WYOMING — Members of the State Board of Land Commissioners (SBLC) are scheduled to decide the fate of the Kelly Parcel, a 640-acre state school trust parcel situated in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), on Thursday, Nov 7, in Cheyenne.
After the Town of Jackson, conservation groups and community members opposed the auction of the Kelly Parcel to private developers, the SBLC voted to table the sale until the fall of 2024. The SBLC board consists of Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, Governor Mark Gordon, Auditor Kristi Racines, Treasurer Curt Meier and Secretary of State Chuck Gray.
In February, the Wyoming Legislature voted to approve the sale of the Kelly Parcel to the federal government for no less than $100 million, contingent on hunting and grazing allowance and changes to the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs plan.
On Wednesday, Nov 6, Wyoming State Representative Mike Yin told Buckrail that the SBLC will decide if the Park Service will acquire this wildlife rich habitat for perpetuity. According to the GTNP Foundation, the Kelly Parcel provides seasonal migration routes for elk, bison, moose, mule deer and pronghorn populations.
“This will be a sale specifically to the National Park,” Yin said. “I think that’s really important to point out to people. It’s not going to be a sale to the Bureau of Land Management or anywhere else; it’s going to be to the National Park.”
Yin said that if the decision to sell the trust parcel fails, the board could pursue other options, including Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder’s proposition to pursue a land swap deal for the Kelly Parcel.
Degenfelder has voiced her opposition to the sale without a land swap. She told Wyoming Public Radio on Nov. 4 that she plans to vote against the deal unless the exchange includes the federal acquisition of 100,000 acres in the Powder River Basin (PRB). According to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the PRB contains 25 billion tons of economically recoverable coal. This region of public land in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana is the largest coal-producing region in the U.S.
Yin explained how a money-to-land sale holds greater monetary value for Wyoming versus a land swap.
“We get a 60% bonus on the appraised value of the sale, which we would not necessarily get with the land swap, because the federal government can’t add money.” Yin explained that with a cash sale, “the extra $40M is coming from private donation on top of the appraised value of the parcel.”
Yin also said that GTNP risks losing the parcel, which is bordered on three sides by the Park, if the sale doesn’t happen now.
“This is land that should be part of the National Park,” Yin said. “Not doing it now risks not having the ability to prevent development within the park in the future, because it’s coming out of a fund in the national government that will likely get spent out if it doesn’t get used on this deal.”
Yin said that all of the money from the sale will be directed towards a permanent trust fund to fund education.
“It’s a win-win for Wyoming,” Yin said. “It will protect that parcel from commercial development forever, as well as ensure that there is more funding for education, which means that less funding has to come from taxes. It’s a big deal and we should be saying ‘yes’ to it.”
The special meeting of the SBLC, which is open to the public, will be held from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday. To attend online or to provide comments, register here. The meeting will also be live streamed via YouTube.
