Wyoming officials on Thursday postponed the sale of a coveted square-mile property within the borders of Grand Teton National Park, delaying a public auction that generated widespread publicity and equally widespread outrage.
The State Board of Land Commissioners — the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and superintendent of public instruction — met Thursday afternoon to decide whether to OK an auction proposed by the Wyoming Office of State Land and Investments. Not long into the deliberations, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder made a motion to table the auction of the tract of land known as the Kelly Parcel until fall 2024 and explore a land swap with the federal government in the interim.
“We just need more time to work on this, which I am willing to lead,” Degenfelder said.
Degenfelder, the daughter of an oilman, suggested convening a working group in the intervening months to negotiate a land exchange and other options with the U.S. Department of the Interior. Swapping the valuable Kelly Parcel for land that includes mineral rights elsewhere in Wyoming could maximize revenue for the state’s school trust, she said.
“This is not a new concept,” Degenfelder said. “In fact it was explored nearly a decade ago by a group of individuals.”
Land commissioners acted on the superintendent’s motion in a voice vote, stalling a potential auction that was initiated by Gov. Mark Gordon until next fall at the earliest.
Although no action was taken, officials and members of the public who traveled to the Cheyenne meeting were allowed to testify before commissioners moved along with their agenda.
Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins told commissioners he’s confident that the state and federal government can find a way to convey the section of valuable land to the federal government. That was the resolution for three previous Wyoming-owned inholdings in the park, he said.
“The National Park Service has been and continues to be ready to continue our collaborative working relationship with the State Land Board, with the Office of State Lands, with the Legislature, to be able to explore how we can go forward with this,” Jenkins said.
Prior to her motion, Degenfelder said she was disinclined to offer the Park Service a sweetheart deal on a direct sale for the land, which was appraised at $62 million in 2022. The Office of State Land and Investments received feedback that the estimate was low, and Director Jennifer Scoggin subsequently recommended setting the minimum bid at $80 million.
Constitutionally, the Wyoming Legislature must approve any direct land sale. Lawmakers are exploring a bill that would do so, perhaps with a $100 million price tag, though that legislation might not be introduced until the body’s 2025 general session.
Auctions and land swaps are the two avenues to dispose of Wyoming land without legislative approval.
There have been at least two attempts to use a land swap as a means of conveying Wyoming’s inholdings in Grand Teton to the National Park Service. Because the school trust land in the park is so valuable, it will likely take a much larger acreage of federal property this time around to make a land exchange work.
Note: This story was updated at 4 p.m. Dec. 7. —Ed.
Trying to find out how come they want to sell this in the first place. Whats the purpose? My experience is…once you sell it….its gone and you have no further control, no matter how many agreements are in place they are easily broken, amended, revised by those that pay the price. Just say NO Wyo to any abdication of control over your land!
I would like to see a paragraph of explanation about school trust lands and the trust duty to generate revenue for beneficiaries in all coverage of the Kelly Parcel and what the state is doing or neglecting in its trust duty. The state’s trust duty to the beneficiaries, mostly K-12 schoolchildren, is mandated in Wyoming’s Constitution and Act of Admission. That is why the trust lands exist. The paragraph could start with that iconic statement, “This is not public land. It is trust land.””
The Legislature finally is putting real light on the revenue opportunities for all school trust assets. Those efforts run up against the interests who think they share equal footing with the beneficiaries (they don’t) and the difficulty of seeing trust lands as more than grazing and drilling.
I suggested the state do a cash sale that results in conservation of the section inside Grand Teton National Park and a deposit in the school trust fund that will generate interest income for school funding estimated at about $5 million a year. That meets the trust duty and preserves the Kelly Parcel. You can’t simply ignore a trust duty, but there may be options.
Public comments on the Kelly Parcel (including some here) indicate the writers do not understand the creation of the trust and the obligation imposed on the state, as trustee. I wonder if this could be a “teachable moment” for Wyofile and other news outlets to help readers understand what is a trust duty and an increasingly important opportunity to generate revenue for our public schools.
Where does it end ? This can’t be good for the wildlife. All over this country we are destroying the natural habitat of the wildlife. This land was supposed to be preserved for future generations. This literally makes me sick. Money can’t buy back the beauty once it’s gone.
I say NO SALE at any price! Good Lord, some people would sell their mother if the price was high enough.
It wasn’t that they heard footsteps. It was a fullblown stampede coming at them
The five members of the State Land Board are also the highest elected officials in Wyoming. They heard, felt, and saw how unpopular selling the Kelly Parcel was with ALL the voters across Wtoming. Didn’t matter if they were Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Whigs or Know Nothings…. the vast majority of Wyoming residents do not want the State to just sell the Kelly.
So the Big Five just leapfrogged over the contentious deal in their own self interests. To stay elected ; get re-elected ; not have a political broadaxe hanging over their heads. They did not take the Kelly discussion off the table for more factfinding or to conjure a gentler way of selling the Kelly out of pure greed or political Fed-hating spite.
They deferred in the interests of their own political self-preservation. Their normall docile domestic Natives were majorly restless. Heads have rolled in Cheyenne for far less.
Agree.
Any sale will only be attractive to gov’t agencies with tax payer dollars.
Not likely a private investor would be interested at $100m price tag and gov’t red tape to develop…
You are wrong! Nothing to keep a couple billionaires coming together if this property was to come up for auction. The Kelly parcel should never come under any other type of management other than what will help preserve the nature of Jackson Hole. Already overdeveloped valley, needs no more development. Wyomingites should leave the state once in a while and see how crowded and polluted the rest of the world has become and then perhaps the realization of what a jewel Wyoming is still and certainly J Hole is the best of the best. Save a piece or three of Wyoming for me please!