Kelly parcel remains tied to Rock Springs land plan
JACKSON — The state Legislature has tied selling the Kelly parcel to Grand Teton National Park to the fate of the draft Rock Springs Resource Management Plan — a controversial federal land proposal that has attracted the ire of Wyomingites.
But connecting the two issues — along with another condition that remains in the budget — will likely not jeopardize a potential sale of the 640-acre inholding to the National Park Service, onlookers say.
Teton County’s delegation, which supports selling the Kelly parcel to the Park Service, has backed the measure connecting the parcel’s future to the Rock Springs plan. Speaker of the House Albert Sommers is also behind it, along with Rock Springs’ legislative delegation.
“If the 67th Legislature passes a budget bill in the next couple days, the odds are very high that Kelly will be able to be sold to the federal government,” said Rob Wallace, a retired Department of the Interior official and Teton County resident who oversaw the Park Service during the Trump administration.
Rep. Clark Stith, R-Rock Springs, sponsored the budget amendment tying the Kelly parcel to the Rock Springs plan. Stith argued the Rock Springs plan could cost southern Wyoming over $1 billion. He argues that his amendment tells the federal government, “If you want us to play nice in the sandbox in the northwest, then play nice in the sandbox with us in southwest Wyoming.”
The question now is whether the legislature will be able to pass a budget, a statutory duty that has been snarled by infighting between Republicans in Cheyenne. Authorization to sell the Kelly parcel to the park, and the rider tying that approval to the Rock Springs plan, are both included in the budget.
The Kelly parcel is state trust land surrounded by federal land, making it difficult to monetize, a problem for officials who manage state land to raise money for Wyoming schools. That tension has led Wyoming to sell three other inholdings to Teton park in the past two decades.
The remaining 640-acre parcel is the fourth and final one that the state would like to sell and that the park would like to buy. A direct sale to the Park Service, however, requires legislative approval. Without that, state land managers say, they have to consider selling the parcel via an open market auction, which Wyomingites broadly oppose.
The Kelly parcel is undeveloped and sits in the foothills of the Gros Ventre Range. Mule deer and pronghorn migrate across its 640 acres every spring and fall, coming and going to verdant summer ranges in Teton park, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department considers it crucial winter range for elk. Cowboy State residents don’t want to see the land developed, and most who spoke up at public meetings in Jackson, Cody, Cheyenne and Casper this past fall advocated for selling the parcel to the park.
In January, Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, inserted a line item into the budget setting a $100 million price tag for the Kelly parcel, $40 million more than the appraised value and the most Teton park and its partners can pay. Gierau’s measure also gave state land managers the approval to sell to the Park Service.
Soon after, however, the Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives tacked strings onto authorization for a Kelly parcel sale. After negotiations between the two houses finished Tuesday night, two survive. One would only allow the state to sell to Grand Teton if the park agrees to allow livestock grazing and public hunting on the parcel in perpetuity. The other requires the governor to “make a determination” that the BLM’s decision on the Rock Springs plan doesn’t go against Wyoming’s wishes when it comes to liquid mineral leasing and rights of way — the tool the BLM uses to permit the development of roads and pipelines.
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, said the connected measures work to “find compromise between stakeholders and allow both of our communities in Wyoming to achieve our goals, as well as a win for the country.” That win, Yin said, would be seeing the Kelly parcel preserved and sold to Grand Teton.
Onlookers agree that tying the Kelly parcel to the Rock Springs amendment won’t jeopardize a sale of the Kelly parcel, but for different reasons. Wallace, the former Interior official, said the amendment does not — and cannot — compel the BLM to make a specific decision.
“It’s not breaking any new ground,” Wallace said of the amendment. “It’s just reiterating what the governor and countless people now have said in public.”
Josh Metten, Wyoming field manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said that the BLM appears willing to work with Wyoming, which could help the governor make the determination.
“It’s not going to be an easy job, but I am optimistic that they’re up to the task and we’re going to see a result that works for Wyoming and also works for the country,” Metten said.
Metten added that he would have liked to see the Kelly parcel and Rock Springs plan handled separately, to avoid “the bureaucracy and inaction that we hate and we see in D.C.”
“But I also understand why the decision was made to include that,” Metten said. “It was very important to the Rock Springs delegation that that language be put in.”
This story was published on March 7, 2024.
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