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Last week’s open house in Driggs, Idaho took in about 300 people to learn about the proposed expansion of ski and trail terrain at Grand Targhee Resort, up the road and in Wyoming.
After five years since the expansion was first proposed the U.S. Forest Service published a draft environmental impact statement last month. The draft EIS shows impacts on the people, plants, views and animals of the region with ski area expansion options ranging from doing nothing to building more ridge-line buildings, runs and lifts on 160 acres of forest land. The comment period is open until June 20 to allow time for the public to read the over 600-page document.
Jay Pence is the district ranger for the forest service in Driggs. For those weighing in on if the resort should expand, he said to avoid simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ votes. The most helpful comments, he said, include any missing data sets. While that might seem to exclude the lay person, Pence said it can also mean observations from those who backcountry ski where the resort is looking to expand.
“It might be something that we have not observed,” Pence said.
The same could go for the socioeconomic factors, like expected traffic or business growth in Teton Valley.
Members of the public milled about and caught up during the three-hour open house, scanning posters and QR codes to the forest services’ public comment portal.
Still dressed in his tan and green work garb, Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins wasn’t on duty, but in the Driggs community center as a member of the public, he said. He was upfront, though, about the park’s interest in the land onto which Grand Targhee hopes to expand.
“We’re concerned about any development that would be on ridge tops that would be visible from either the wilderness areas or from the areas inside the park,” he said. “And then just what activities might be going on that might have effects on bighorn sheep.”
Jenkins said it’s the same topics the park is interested in as it was five years ago when expansion was first proposed.
Jordan Wilfred is the senior marketing manager at the mom-and-pop style ski resort that’s in Wyoming on the west side of the Tetons and only accessible through Idaho.
Wilfred has heard the voices on both sides of the Tetons that have been critical of the resort’s goal expansion for years, saying it goes too far.
“We don’t want to be Jackson and we don’t want to be Sun Valley,” said Teton Valley resident Anne Callison in 2021, who is now organizing an anti-Targhee expansion contingency.
But as Teton Valley inevitably grows, Wilfred said the resort should be able to keep up.
The section called “monotrees” provides low elevation skiing. “Targhee is notorious for foggy days and this would give people a whole other area to ski and be below the fog line on most days,” Wilfred said. An area called South Bowl, he said, would provide “amazing” Teton views and “awesome” south-facing slopes.
Wilfred is trying to make the argument that the resort’s boundary expansion is aimed at better skiing over many years, and that it fits where people ski now.
“It is already skied heavily by skiers who go out of the gates and our patrollers go make rescues over there all the time,” he said of the South Bowl. “It might as well be within our boundary.”
The forest service lists an expected decision date of April 2026. The EIS and comment portal are available online.
