Wyoming calls off sale of wildlife-rich tract in Jackson Hole (not the Kelly Parcel)

FROM WYOFILE: 

‘State wildlife officials had been exploring the sale of a 320-acre parcel to the Bridger-Teton National Forest, but the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission nixed the deal last week.

By Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile.com

DOUGLAS – A deal to sell a half-square-mile swath of undeveloped Wyoming-owned land in the heart of Jackson Hole to the U.S. Forest Service has been terminated. 

The 320-acre subject of the now-foiled sale is known as the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Lacking road access, the Game and Fish-owned property is located where the Bridger-Teton National Forest and National Elk Refuge come together at the edge of the Gros Ventre Range foothills. The land had been recently appraised for north of $15 million and the acquisition had been analyzed via an environmental assessment by the federal government. But on Sept. 11 the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted to forgo a “purchase contract” brought by the Forest Service. That offer is slated to expire at the end of October. 

Outgoing Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik told commissioners it was the department’s recommendation “to not move forward with the sale.” 

“There’s some uncertainty about a lot of things that interplay with this sale in that part of the world,” Nesvik said. “Particularly, implementation of our feedground management plan that was just recently approved.” 

In March, Game and Fish commissioners signed off on a long-term plan that could lead to big changes in the state’s elk-feeding program. Simultaneously, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reworking its management plan for the largest elk feedground: the National Elk Refuge, where the current feeding-reduction plan hasn’t worked as designed. 

Retaining the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area could give Game and Fish a bargaining chip in upcoming elk-feeding policy discussions. Potentially, its 320 acres could even offer flexibility for Wyoming to keep feeding elk adjacent to the National Elk Refuge if federal wildlife managers go in a direction state officials don’t like. 

The seven-person Game and Fish Commission didn’t engage in much discussion following Nesvik’s recommendation. Unanimously, they voted to take no action. With the “purchase contract” expiration coming within weeks, that essentially ends the deal — at least for the near future. 

“We certainly don’t want to close this door as an option down the road,” Nesvik said.

Although most recently the Bridger-Teton National Forest approached Game and Fish about the acquisition, it was the state agency that initiated the conversation five years ago. At the time, a need for funds to build housing for Jackson-region state employees drove interest in offloading the property. That housing — at the agency’s South Park Wildlife Habitat Management Area — is in the process of being built with a different source of funding. 

Until recently, the conveyance of the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area looked like it was on a track to happening. 

In July 2023, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that the Game and Fish Commission had published a public notice soliciting comments on the possible sale. WyoFile queried the public comments that came in: three of the five received total supported the conveyance. In subsequent reporting by the newspaper, Game and Fish officials pitched the deal as a win-win. 

“There’s an opportunity to keep that 320 acres for wildlife in perpetuity and get revenue,” John Kennedy, a now-retired Game and Fish deputy director, said at the time. “That’s a pretty simple concept.”

The state of Wyoming has possessed the parcel since 1965, when it purchased the 320 acres from Kenneth and Beatrice Miller using $80,000 in federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funding.

A September 2023 appraisal landed on a value of $15.36 million, Game and Fish Deputy Chief of Services Sean Bibbey told WyoFile.

Bridger-Teton officials and volunteers had been hoping to come up with that sum.

“We were applying for Land and Water Conservation Funding, fiscal year 2026,” said Michael Schrotz, a retired forest staffer who continues to assist with land acquisitions. 

The Bridger-Teton’s interest in acquiring the land, he said, was in keeping it open.

“It’s an inholding, and neither the Forest Service nor the National Elk Refuge would like to have development occur in that area,” Schrotz said. “You can see the Grand [Teton] from that parcel, and so it probably would be worth a bazillion dollars.” 

Because the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area is owned and administered by Game and Fish, the tract has not faced the same development pressures as other state-owned parcels in Teton County. 

Several 640-acre Wyoming sections administered by the Office of State Lands and Investments in the region have been in the news: at Munger Mountain, where the state’s assessing a “conservation lease” proposal after a commercial glamping business expressed interest; the Kelly Parcel, which is in line to be sold to the National Park Service after threat of a public auction; and the section abutting Teton Village Road, which has fueled a fight over whether county zoning should apply on state lands.   

Game and Fish, however, does not have the same constitutional duty to maximize revenue from the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area. The land, rather, is managed to conserve wildlife habitat and provide access for hunting and other forms of recreation. It’s only accessible on foot or horseback, and only from May 1 to November 30 due to winter wildlife closures. 

“Throughout that entire [sale] process, our biggest concern was making sure that the property was perpetually protected and usable for wildlife,” said Bibbey, the Game and Fish staffer. “We never lost sight of that.”

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

This story was posted on September 17, 2024.