JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) has announced that it approved a $600,000 funding request from the Friends of the Bridger-Teton’s Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation Program.
The funds, allocated from lodging tax funds, will be directed toward educating visitors and managing visitor impacts on the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF), per the announcement.
“For the third year in a row, the JHTTB voted in favor of allocating lodging tax funds to Friends of Bridger-Teton after hearing that previous year’s funding contributed to improved visitor behavior, mitigated risk of human-caused wildfires and limited human conflict with wildlife,” JHTTB said in the announcement.
Funds will be used to arrange for Friends of Bridger-Teton representatives to be “boots on the ground” in busy areas of the forest.
A statement given at the May 9 public meeting by Scott Kosiba, Executive Director of Friends of the Bridger-Teton, reported “zero catastrophic human-caused wildfires on the landscape where volunteers were in place and zero human-caused wildlife deaths since the program was started in 2021. I can’t say that we can claim full credit for this, but I also can’t say what would have happened if those ambassadors weren’t on the ground,” Kosiba said.
The $600,000 will be divided as such: $188,000 will fund ambassador and staff time, $177,000 will be used for ambassador training/resources and $235,000 will go toward visitor education and outreach.
JHTTB shared that since July 1, 2023, its funding has supported 11,853 total hours of volunteer service, more than 200 abandoned campfires extinguished by ambassadors, 153 food storage violations issued by ambassadors and 89 out-of-bounds campers flagged by ambassadors. According to the announcement, Friends of Bridger-Teton estimated that these numbers have roughly doubled since the start of the program in 2021.
