The U.S. Forest Service’s regional office sent a letter this week that outlines next steps for how Grand Targhee Resort’s development will proceed. It leaves the Caribou-Targhee National Forest with 12 instructions before a final decision can be signed, which is anticipated in the next few months.
Ever since Grand Targhee Resort pitched an expansion and upgrades project in its 2018 master plan, the Alta ski area has faced intense public pushback. The ski area’s ask would also require an amendment to the “forest plan.”
In the Forest Service’s draft decision from May, it proposed one of the most permissive project options, which would allow the ski area to expand by 694 acres, add new chairlifts, avalanche mitigation infrastructure, vault toilets and glades, plus build two on-mountain restaurants.
“These components collectively modernize lift service, increase terrain variety, enhance guest facilities, expand summer offerings, and improve operational access,” wrote Regional Forester Kristin Bail in the Oct. 26 letter to Caribou-Targhee National Forest supervisor, Kim Pierson.
Forest responds
The forest reviewed a total of 154 objections since a Sept. 24 meeting, which Bail and Pierson attended.
Bail grouped responses to concerns raised in objection letters thematically, ranging from compliance to federal processes to environmental impacts.
That includes a review of the National Environmental Policy Act process to ensure compliance, a “biological opinion” from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an explanation as to why the forest did not opt for the “environmentally preferable alternative.”
Though the forest stopped short of approving the resort’s full pitch, not everyone is on board with the direction it’s poised to take.
The most controversial aspect has largely been whether the ski resort should be able to expand in-bounds terrain to a popular side country area known as “South Bowl.”
With a Grand Teton backdrop, backcountry skiers have decried a new chairlift in the area for how it would impact the visual landscape and cut off a popular side country route into Teton Canyon. Wildlife experts say the expansion would encroach into nearby bighorn sheep habitat and would all but ensure the decline of a unique herd.
For some in opposition, like Niki Richards, executive director at Valley Advocates for Responsible Development, “more isn’t more.”
Richards advocates for a more “balanced alternative,” meaning a slower roll-out of Grand Targhee’s development and no expansion.
In-bounds improvements, she said, “gives a lot of room for the resort to stay viable, to stay competitive and to keep being the awesome resort that our community loves.”
Sheep, whitebark pine remain a top concern
In a July plea to the forest, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said it was “thoroughly disappointed” in the forest’s decision to pick the option with the most development.
One of Bail’s instructions directs the forest to “identify appropriate mitigations or alternatives” to consider the well-being of the herd, whose habitat drastically shrank over the last century. The instructions do, however, stop short of directly calling for the elimination of the South Bowl expansion from the project.
But there are no mitigation efforts that would save the herd if the boundary expansion is approved, according to Game and Fish.
If the resort adds chairlifts, roads, grooming, snowmaking and avalanche control, the sheep will “probably just abandon the area completely,” Game and Fish biologist Aly Courtemanch said at the September objection meeting.
The Teton herd is one of the few native, isolated groups in the West that have remained almost entirely intact since the Ice Age. The state grants the so-called “coordinated herd” extra protections.
The resort expansion would also result in the loss of whitebark pines, a vital keystone species that serves as a foundation for the rest of a forest ecosystem.
Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins also urged the forest to consider the herd in a letter, and visual changes to the resort’s “viewshed” from the park, in its final decision. The forest does not take input from federal agencies, according to Bail’s letter.
While it’s not clear what the final decision will determine for South Bowl, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation executive director Katie Cheeseborough was “encouraged” that the forest acknowledged the uniqueness of this specific herd unit within the larger region.
“The [objection] response really recognized what makes the Teton range big horn sheep herd so special,” Cheeseborough told KHOL. “[The forest] seems to take our objections seriously that maybe the analysis wasn’t done at the right level.”
It’s all about the ‘ski experience,’ resort management says
For many local skiers, Targhee runs on vibes, so drastic changes to the laid-back Teton Valley mainstay aren’t viewed as necessary.
Longtime Grand Targhee and South Bowl skier Kirstin Robbe is one of them and has organized opposition. When the project was first pitched, she launched a “Targhee No Expansion” campaign with her sister, distributed signs and spoke up during public comments.
Among concerns for wildlife and backcountry access, Robbe joins a loud crowd concerned that a sense of wilderness and solitude would be lost to avalanche mitigation and resort operations.
“You can hear the snow back there. It’s that quiet,” said Robbe about the South Bowl terrain, but with expansion, “it’s going to sound like the Fourth of July.”
Most of all, she doesn’t feel the forest’s approach finds a middle ground between the wishes of a private company operating on a public lands lease, comments from the community and environmental concerns.
Undeterred by the wide range of objectors, Grand Targhee owner-manager Geordie Gillett maintains that the improvement projects and expansion are necessary to up the visitor experience. He also doesn’t see what makes his project different from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort or Snow King Resort’s recent improvements. Those projects largely stayed within previously permitted boundaries.
After Snow King added a lift to its backside, Courtemanch told KHOL that elk rerouted a migration corridor. Also ungulates, bighorn sheep are also highly sensitive to human presence.
For Gillett, if the forest gives him the go-ahead, he is ready to charge forward.
“I want to be proud of what we’re doing as far as the ski experience because that’s one thing that I do feel like we know how to provide up here,” Gillett told KHOL. “This plan gives us the best path forward to continue to do that.”
He commended the forest for a thorough review process, while taking aim at both the Idaho and Wyoming Teton Counties, which he said have “completely burnt their relationships with Targhee.” Both counties submitted opposition letters.
The forest’s next engagement with the public will likely be the final decision, which could take a few months as the forest addresses the 12 instructions.
“No final decision will be made until all required clarifications and direction have been fully assessed and incorporated, and until the final Biological Opinion from the US Fish and Wildlife Service is received and accepted,” Teton Basin District Ranger Jay Pence said in a text to KHOL.
