Gov. Mark Gordon has signed an agreement to sell the 640-acre Kelly Parcel school section in Grand Teton National Park to the park for $100 million, his spokesman said Monday.
The agreement still requires the governor to formally determine that the federal government’s plan for 3.6 million public acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management meets two specific state terms.
The final plan appears to meet those conditions set by the Wyoming Legislature, according to reporting by the Jackson Hole News&Guide, but the BLM still has to finalize the environmental study with a “record of decision.” Gordon will wait for that step before deciding himself whether the legislative language is satisfied.
“The governor signed the sales agreement,” spokesman Michael Pearlman said Monday. However, he’s “not going to certify [it] until the [BLM] Record of Decision is signed.”
Meantime, the BLM on Nov. 18 responded to Gordon’s last criticisms of the plan — called a consistency review — without yielding to his proposed changes. The response to Gordon clears the way for the agency to finalize the record of decision.
“The [BLM Rock Springs plan] appeal is being prepared. We are going to be appealing.”
Michael Pearlman
Gordon intends to appeal the BLM’s response to BLM head Tracy Stone-Manning by Dec. 18, an appeal that must be resolved before the record of decision is signed, Pearlman said.
“That appeal is being prepared,” Pearlman said. “We are going to be appealing.”
The recent developments create an unusual confluence of events. It appears the BLM can meet the Legislature’s terms, that the state’s Kelly Parcel can be sold to Grand Teton and that Wyoming will appeal the BLM response — all at the same time.
Conservation balance
The BLM plan seeks a balance between conservation, industrial development, grazing and recreation, the BLM and its supporters contend. But residents of Rock Springs, Sweetwater County and the surrounding region have criticized the BLM for threatening their livelihoods by choking off access to parts of the expansive country between South Pass and the Union Pacific railroad.
Gordon’s consistency review questioned the extent of the BLM’s proposed conservation efforts, saying they were unnecessary, didn’t align with county land management plans and lacked meaningful engagement with area residents and governments, among other things.
Signing the sales agreement marks a step toward earning money for Wyoming education and several state institutions while ensuring the wildlife-rich and scenic Kelly Parcel will be preserved. State legislators had debated auctioning the land for development but ultimately OK’d the $100 million price — with conditions.
That deal was outlined in Wyoming’s 2024 budget law. The State Board of Land Commissioners last month approved the sales agreement with a 3-2 vote, leaving only the governor’s signature and his pending decision on the conditions. Gordon signed the agreement last week, Pearlman said.
The Legislature’s conditions called for relaxing the BLM’s proposed conservation restrictions in two arenas. One restriction proposed to limit oil and gas leasing; the other would have constrained rights of way that area residents said would have curtailed their ability to manage livestock and pursue other activities.
“Closing cannot occur until the Governor determines that the Record of Decision for the BLM’s [Rock Springs Resource Management Plan] does not select Alternative B[’s]” provisions restricting oil and gas leasing and rights of way, the sales agreement states.
“If the Governor is not able to make this determination after the Record of Decision,” the sales agreement reads, “[the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments] shall make notice to the [U.S.] Department [of Interior] of such non-determination, and this Agreement shall automatically terminate and the Parties shall have no further obligation to one another under this Agreement.”
The mile-square section Kelly Parcel is surrounded on three sides by Grand Teton National Park and is highly valued for its scenic and wildlife qualities. It was appraised at $62.4 million in 2022.
The U.S. Department of the Interior has secured $62.4 million via the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Grand Teton National Park Foundation has pledged the $37.6 million balance.
This story was corrected to note that Gordon’s appeal of the BLM’s response will be directed to Tracy Stone-Manning, and must be resolved before the plan is finalized. — Ed.
Don’t hold your breath. Trump’s new Interior Secretary may be ordered to nullify the deal and/or to just start selling this and other federal lands to private developers and speculators. The specter of James Watt’s Sagebrush Rebellion looms larger than ever now, in Project 2025.
The government can only own so much of our land and I think if checking they can’t own any more.
The conditions of this sale is very sad. BEEF rules and controls every land decision in this country. It’s sad how addicted we have become to cheap and the power Beef ranchers carry .
For crying outloud Wyoming. Keep grazing animals off this parcel and kick the cows and sheep out of our park lands. Magagna and his cronies got more than enough of Wyoming already. FCS
From the sales agreement.
“””Conditions of Sale. The Department agrees that it will use existing processes to make available the Kelly Parcel for grazing of livestock and for public hunting for as long as the United States owns the Kelly Parcel.
“”””
This could be a deal breaker for the authoritarian run Park.
So the state wants to protect, what? one rancher. Who’s the authoritarian?
As a person who has been involved with the Area 75 and 79 elk hunts going back to 1989, I can wholeheartedly tell you that the “Authorities” running/enFORCing GTNP are not doing it with “the People” in mind.
The park has slowly eliminated those hunts to a required minimum. There was zero problem with the way the State has overseen that 1 sq. mile for generations. Giving it to the Feds is taking it away from “the people”.
It’s a shame the State sold it to the Park. They should have kept it as is.
GTNP’s actions against the annual elk hunt has been a travesty. They have cut that hunt down to nearly nothing.
That was some very good reporting and writing .