The Jackson Hole Land Trust is launching a hiking campaign next week for what is says are the “final steps” to buy the development rights on 3.74 acres at the base of High School Butte.
The nonprofit is offering after-school incentives with business partners, from free bike tune-ups to cookies from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.
Organizers hope 1,000 hikers will turn out from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3 to help convince a private family to donate $100,000 for a conservation easement and transfer ownership to the Town of Jackson. The landowning Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole listed the property for $1.45 million to raise money for its already-approved employee housing across the street.
Land Trust Vice President Liz Long gave credit to the church for starting talks with the Land Trust as early as 2020 to loop them in on the pending sale.
“It could just be a single-family house and access cut off to the public,” Long said of the property.
The Land Trust already secured $750,000 from Teton County Commissioners this week. That money came from a 2022 voter-approved SPET fund, which is sales tax money specifically set aside for conservation.
Should the transfer go through, the trailhead property would connect with 18 acres the Land Trust already owns and manages for critical winter mule deer habitat.
The church has raised almost $9 million from its congregation for housing 21 families in townhomes across the street from the trailhead. It said it still needs the money from the land sale to complete the homes.
