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Private land development is one of the biggest challenges facing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, according to Scott Christensen, who leads the Bozeman-based Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
“Growth isn’t going to stop,” Christensen said, “I’m not going to stop it, you’re not going to stop it, but how are we going to manage it? And how is it going to occur in a way that doesn’t irreversibly harm all the things that we care about here?”
He made the comments at a conference in Jackson hosted by the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.
He said one way to manage growth is better conversations between private landowners, advocates and land managers to align values. Second, he said, better land-use planning is needed to accommodate wildlife, the environment and public services with private property rights.
“But finding a balance is really hard and complicated,” he said.
During the last panel of the two-day conference, he sat alongside Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce and Grand Teton National Park Director Chip Jenkins. Together they represented private, state and federal interests in the GYE.
The panels and presentations took place during the first two days of the federal government shutdown, where many federal workers in areas like Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest have been furloughed.
Some federal leaders, like U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director and Wyoming native Brian Nesvik, didn’t show up for scheduled talks because of it.
Christensen said that since January, there’s “a vacuum” being left by the federal government as it fires staff and pauses funding for programs it has traditionally supported.
“And all of us who care about this place need to pay attention to that,” he said. “We’re going to have to find new ways forward in a period where the federal government is doing less.”
He expects state and local government, alongside private groups like his, to be on the hook.
