JACKSON, Wyo. — A Utah man was recently sentenced to 18 months of probation, $6,000 in fines, a $3,690.96 community restitution fine and has been banned from entering the exterior boundaries of Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) for 18 months for his part in organizing an illegal dirt bike event near Mormon Row in 2020.
Teton Interagency Dispatch Center received a call on July 18, 2020, at about 8:45 p.m. reporting the event. When park officials responded to the scene the group had already left, leaving behind approximately 1,000 feet of track two to ten feet in width, according to park officials.
Investigators obtained a video of about 50 people gathered to watch and ride dirt bikes on the makeshift course. The video spread across social media outlets in the days following the incident.
The defendant pled guilty to two counts, “destroy injure, deface, or damage property or real property and aid and abet” and “operating a motor vehicle off-road and aid and abet.”
According to the park, the historic hay fields along Mormon Row are part of a 10-year project that began in 2014 to remove the non-native grasses and replant the area with 37 species of native plants to restore the site to sagebrush steppe habitat.
