A crucial vote this week by Wyoming leaders could finally determine the fate of a parcel of land near Grand Teton National Park.
On Thursday, Nov. 7, the State Board of Land Commissioners will vote in a special board meeting whether to approve selling the prized 640-acre Kelly Parcel to Grand Teton National Park in exchange for $100 million.
That’s after the Office of State Lands and Investments issued a report last week recommending the sale.
The parcel holds a unique place in Wyoming for its status as a moose, mule deer and pronghorn antelope migration corridor and for its dazzling views of the Tetons.
The vote could cap months of planning and permanently keep the Kelly Parcel, which is attractive land for developers, from being privately developed.
That was a real possibility the board proposed last year, angering thousands of Wyomingites who left online public comments on the proposal. Many of them said they’d prefer a sale to the National Parks Service.
But this week’s deal isn’t completely assured.
A member of the five-member board, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, previously told Wyoming Public Radio she would vote against the cash-for-land version of the deal under consideration on Thursday.
A horse grazes on the Kelly Parcel. (Reed Mattison / REED MATTISON)
“We cannot allow the federal government to get a sweetheart deal on the backs of Wyoming students, which these state lands fund,” said Degenfelder in an interview.
She said she’d prefer a version of the exchange that includes land swaps with the federal government in the resources-rich Powder River Basin.
Degenfelder put out a press release Nov. 4 saying she was “stunned to learn of Governor Gordon’s decision to quietly negotiate [the] sale contract [with the feds].”
In addition to that, Gov. Mark Gordon, another board member, still needs to decide if the federal Bureau of Land Management did what the state Legislature wanted in the agency’s most recent draft of the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Final Environmental Impact Statement.
That requirement was a last-minute amendment to the authorization of the transfer earlier this year, stipulating that before it can take place, the governor needs to ensure the BLM didn’t pick a conservation-oriented management plan in the southwest corner of the state.
However, Gordon’s eventual sign-off seems likely.
The board meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. on Thursday.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
