Teton County Commissioners are asking that a controversial pathway not be built in Grand Teton National Park and for partnership in federal planning.
That’s after the Trump administration reversed course on a decade-old decision.
In a letter signed Monday, county commissioners wrote Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to “express disappointment” in the department’s decision to revisit and amend a previous decision. Commissioners asked for more studies and an alternative to adding more pavement in the Moose-Wilson Corridor.
Commissioners feel excluded from the public process.
They had been more involved in the 2016 decision but were not afforded the same chance to weigh in this time around. The only public comment for the amended decision was on a federally required process to protect cultural sites, as no new impact studies were conducted.
“The county was…not invited to take part in the 2026 reevaluation and did not have a meaningful opportunity to discuss the proposed change prior to the decision,” the letter reads.
Town leaders have said they are willing to consider a similar resolution. It could make the Oct. 19 meeting agenda, according to Mayor Arne Jorgensen, who personally supports the original decision.
“I have deep, deep concerns about the process failure with the current decision to change the [Record of Decision] without meaningful public process,” Jorgensen said in a message. “This is an unfortunate example of decisions being dictated from D.C. without involvement with gateway communities.”
Before, both the town and county had been consulted as “cooperating agencies,” he said. That’s no longer the case.
The park first nixed the bike path in 2016 after studies determined its construction would hurt fragile habitat for wildlife and sensitive cultural sites.
Joan Anzelmo, a former park superintendent, has been outspoken about changes to a federal process that she finds abnormal. An organizer with Friends of the Moose-Wilson Corridor, she called the commissioners’ letter a “huge win.”
“It’s unprecedented to have a change like this without having opened up a supplemental [Environmental Impact Statement],” Anzelmo said at a county commissioners’ Aug. 28 meeting.
Proponents of more pavement, such as Friends of Pathways Director Katherine Dawson, said residents should celebrate easier access into the park. Blind corners and knolls make for dangerous biking where a separated path could complete the 70-plus-mile “Grand Loop.”
“Please consider all the investment and effort Teton County and the Town of Jackson have put into a dedicated, safe, enjoyable, accessible pathway network,” Dawson told commissioners.
A new bike path could direct part of the route outside of fragile wetland habitat. It may still risk damage to the Indigenous cultural site.
