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The clock is ticking for the Kelly Parcel, a 640-acre plot adjacent to the Grand Teton National Park’s southern boundary. Wyoming state land commissioners are pressured to sell land, which resulted in the Kelly Parcel being put up for public auction last year. The pressure comes from a constitutional agreement that many Western states made that requires the states to raise money from public lands. Revenue is typically generated by leasing the land for grazing, recreation, or selling of the land. The Kelly Parcel only raises around $2,800 annually; the minuscule income has prompted the Wyoming land commissioners to find an alternative to bring in revenue from the land.
The parcel is a migratory corridor for animals that live inside and outside the park such as moose, elk, grizzly bears, wolves, and more. With last year’s decision by the state to auction off the parcel, many residents across the state protested the public auction. Many of the residents pleaded for the state to sell the property to the National Park Service to become an extension of Grand Teton National Park.
In March of this year, Wyoming legislators devised a plan to sell the Kelly Parcel to the national park for $100 million. However, it is not as straightforward as it seems; the bill the legislators released allows the federal government to purchase the parcel within two years and for no less than $100 million, and it must join Grand Teton National Park.
Unfortunately, for those looking to keep the land free of developers, the Grand Teton National Park Foundation will need to raise $38 million in order for the federal government to purchase the parcel. Grand Teton National Park is working to secure $62 million in federal funding, while the Grand Teton National Park Foundation is raising the remaining amount. Leslie Mattson is the president of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and recently spoke with NPR about the challenges of raising the funds:
“This is a heavy lift for us to raise $38 million basically from early winter until hopefully sometime during calendar year in 2024,” she said.
The foundation has not released how much it has raised yet, but Mattson is still optimistic they will be able to reach the target.
If Grand Teton National Park and the Grand Teton National Park Foundation fail to pull together the funds or the deal does not go through, then the parcel will be auctioned off to the public. Selling to private developers has been the worst-case scenario for many following the story. Conservationists and residents are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the land wild and free of development.
The Grand Teton National Park Foundation notes that the $100 million sale to the National Park Service will return nearly $70 million to the Common School Permanent Fund in the first ten years, which could provide much-needed funding for students of Wyoming. The Grand Teton National Park Foundation also mentions that selling to the National Park Service will protect The Path of The Pronghorn, a 200-mile migration route that stretches from Grand Teton National Park to the Green River Valley in southwestern Wyoming. To further understand how to protect the Kelly Parcel or to stay updated with the case, check out the Grand Teton National Park Foundation.
