WILSON, Wyo. — Another complicated day for Teton Pass commuters.

WY22 over Teton Pass is closed in both directions due to avalanche control as of 8 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 22, according to an alert issued by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT). WYDOT’s estimated opening time for the road is between noon and 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 23.

WYDOT had closed the pass at 3 a.m. Monday for avalanche control. According to a post by the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center (BTAC), a “large explosive triggered avalanche” ended up covering both lanes of the Pass.

“Early this morning, WYDOT crews brought down a large, controlled avalanche at Glory Bowl during their mitigation mission,” the agency posted to Facebook Monday morning. “Due to the extent of the clean up, estimated opening time is between noon and 2 p.m. tomorrow.”

WYDOT confirmed to Buckrail that the dense, heavy slide is being addressed by a dozer on Monday morning, and that clearing the snow will take several hours. The agency expects to share an updated opening time estimate as the cleanup unfolds.

According to BTAC’s Monday forecast, high avalanche danger exists in the Tetons.

“Heavy snowfall and strong wind has created very dangerous avalanche conditions on wind loaded middle and upper elevation terrain,” its forecast states.

This is a developing story. Buckrail will provide information as details become available.

WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — Wyoming police officers were seen taking a man into custody after an hours-long standoff Sunday night.

Police swarmed Thorndyke Avenue near 44th Street SW in Wyoming for several hours after a man barricaded himself inside a home. A News 8 crew watched officers remove a man from the barricaded home in handcuffs around 11:35 p.m. Sunday.

A neighbor who lives on Thorndyke Avenue told News 8 that the incident began when a man who lives on the street left his house to confront a group of men who were working on the roof of a nearby property. The neighbor heard a single gunshot before the man retreated into his home.

Thorndyke Avenue was blocked off for hours with those living on the street unable to get to their houses. Those already inside were asked to remain inside.

Hunters won a major decision for public land access in Wyoming recently, and the ripples will ultimately reach Arkansas.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Iron Bar Holdings, LLC v. Cape et al., preserving a unanimous decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ upholding the legality of “corner crossing.” The case involved a Wyoming landowner that pressed trespassing charges against four Missouri hunters who cut across the corner of the landowner’s fence to get from one public parcel to another.

Law enforcement has traditionally supported landowners in “corner crossing” situations. It is an effective method to restrict public access to public land that is surrounded by private land. By restricting corner crossing, landowners have exclusive access to public land abutting their property. They can hunt it without competition, and they can run guided hunts on it.

We have encountered that situation personally while hunting in Oklahoma. A situation in Arkansas occurred about a decade ago where a landowner closed a road on his property that leads to a remote portion of Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. There’s the ongoing conflict between public land hunters in northeast Arkansas and the Hatchie Coon Hunting Club.

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, which in 2021 successfully campaigned to prevent the University of Arkansas from selling the Pine Tree Experimental Station Wildlife Demonstration Area to private interests, filed amicus filings in the Wyoming case and raised funds for the hunters’ legal defense. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers said in a release that the 10th Circuit’s decision preserves access to more than 3.5 million acres of public lands in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma. Impact might also expand to about 8.3 million acres across the West.

“The Supreme Court’s action affirms a principle hunters and anglers have long understood: corner crossing is not a crime,” said Devin O’Dea, western policy and conservation manager for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. “Access to 3.5 million acres of public lands has been secured because four hunters from Missouri took a leap of faith across a corner, and the Wyoming Chapter of BHA stood up in their defense. It’s a victory worth celebrating, and a key domino in the fight for public land access across the West.”

In a sense, the Iron Bar Holdings decision dovetails with Arkansas v. McIlroy, a landmark 1980 case that preserved and expanded public access to Arkansas streams and rivers with a creative interpretation of the term “navigable.” Before McIlroy, “navigable” referred to the farthest distance upstream that a steamboat could go in high water. Landowners on the Mulberry River strung barbed wire across the river. Sometimes they physically accosted paddlers. McIlroy extended navigability definition to canoes and kayaks, creating the paddling environment that so many people enjoy.

Missouri recognizes public access rights to paddlecraft navigable waters, but one still risks an adversarial encounter with territorial landowners on many streams in the state. My former boss Dan Witter and several other Missouri Department of Conservation employees were forced off a well-known river at gunpoint. As Witter told me at the time, the law was on their side, but a streamside encounter with an armed and angry landowner is not the time or place to debate it.

Some public parcels are entirely enclosed by private land. There is no access to those parcels, corner crossings or otherwise. I have a friend in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, whose land enclosed a 160-acre public Bureau of Land Management parcel. I quipped that it would be worthwhile for a hunter to hire a helicopter to airlift him into the property.

Without cracking a hint of a smile, the landowner said a helicopter pilot would have to get permission to overfly his property, and that he would not grant it.

As people migrate away from cities and turn rural hamlets into suburbs, the demand for access to public land will intensify. The courts appear to sympathize with the public in access disputes, and the Iron Bar decision will ultimately factor into access disputes in Arkansas.