Wyoming

Wyoming calls off sale of wildlife-rich tract in Jackson Hole

Published

1 year ago

September 19, 2024

Wyoming calls off sale of wildlife-rich tract in Jackson Hole

Mike Koshmrl

(Wyofile) – A deal to sell a half-square-mile swath of undeveloped Wyoming-owned land in the heart of Jackson Hole to the U.S. Forest Service has been terminated.

The 320-acre subject of the now-foiled sale is known as the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Lacking road access, the Game and Fish-owned property is located where the Bridger-Teton National Forest and National Elk Refuge come together at the edge of the Gros Ventre Range foothills. The land had been recently appraised for north of $15 million, and the acquisition had been analyzed via an environmental assessment by the federal government. But on Sept. 11, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted to forgo a “purchase contract” brought by the Forest Service. That offer is slated to expire at the end of October.

Outgoing Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik told commissioners it was the department’s recommendation “to not move forward with the sale.”

“There’s some uncertainty about a lot of things that interplay with this sale in that part of the world,” Nesvik said. “Particularly, implementation of our feedground management plan that was just recently approved.”

In March, Game and Fish commissioners signed off on a long-term plan that could lead to big changes in the state’s elk-feeding program. Simultaneously, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reworking its management plan for the largest elk feedground: the National Elk Refuge, where the current feeding-reduction plan hasn’t worked as designed.

Retaining the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area could give Game and Fish a bargaining chip in upcoming elk-feeding policy discussions. Potentially, its 320 acres could even offer flexibility for Wyoming to keep feeding elk adjacent to the National Elk Refuge if federal wildlife managers go in a direction state officials don’t like.

The seven-person Game and Fish Commission didn’t engage in much discussion following Nesvik’s recommendation. Unanimously, they voted to take no action. With the “purchase contract” expiration coming within weeks, that essentially ends the deal — at least for the near future.

“We certainly don’t want to close this door as an option down the road,” Nesvik said.

Need to build housing for state employees drove initial interest in sale

Although most recently the Bridger-Teton National Forest approached Game and Fish about the acquisition, it was the state agency that initiated the conversation five years ago. At the time, a need for funds to build housing for Jackson-region state employees drove interest in offloading the property. That housing — at the agency’s South Park Wildlife Habitat Management Area — is in the process of being built with a different source of funding.

Until recently, the conveyance of the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area looked like it was on a track to happening.

In July 2023, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported that the Game and Fish Commission had published a public notice soliciting comments on the possible sale. WyoFile queried the public comments that came in: three of the five received total supported the conveyance. In subsequent reporting by the newspaper, Game and Fish officials pitched the deal as a win-win.

“There’s an opportunity to keep that 320 acres for wildlife in perpetuity and get revenue,” John Kennedy, a now-retired Game and Fish deputy director, said at the time. “That’s a pretty simple concept.”

The state of Wyoming has possessed the parcel since 1965, when it purchased the 320 acres from Kenneth and Beatrice Miller using $80,000 in federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funding.

A September 2023 appraisal landed on a value of $15.36 million, Game and Fish Deputy Chief of Services Sean Bibbey told WyoFile.

Bridger-Teton officials and volunteers had been hoping to come up with that sum.

“We were applying for Land and Water Conservation Funding, fiscal year 2026,” said Michael Schrotz, a retired forest staffer who continues to assist with land acquisitions.

The Bridger-Teton’s interest in acquiring the land, he said, was in keeping it open.

“It’s an inholding, and neither the Forest Service nor the National Elk Refuge would like to have development occur in that area,” Schrotz said. “You can see the Grand [Teton] from that parcel, and so it probably would be worth a bazillion dollars.”

Because the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area is owned and administered by Game and Fish, the tract has not faced the same development pressures as other state-owned parcels in Teton County.

Several 640-acre Wyoming sections administered by the Office of State Lands and Investments in the region have been in the news: at Munger Mountain, where the state’s assessing a “conservation lease” proposal after a commercial glamping business expressed interest; the Kelly Parcel, which is in line to be sold to the National Park Service after threat of a public auction; and the section abutting Teton Village Road, which has fueled a fight over whether county zoning should apply on state lands.

Game and Fish, however, does not have the same constitutional duty to maximize revenue from the Teton Wildlife Habitat Management Area. The land, rather, is managed to conserve wildlife habitat and provide access for hunting and other forms of recreation. It’s only accessible on foot or horseback, and only from May 1 to Nov. 30 due to winter wildlife closures.

“Throughout that entire [sale] process, our biggest concern was making sure that the property was perpetually protected and usable for wildlife,” said Bibbey, the Game and Fish staffer. “We never lost sight of that.”

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Wyoming

Slick roads, snow hamper morning commute in southeast Wyoming

Published

8 hours ago

December 3, 2025

Press Room

Slick roads, snow hamper morning commute in southeast Wyoming

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Drivers in Cheyenne and throughout southeast Wyoming face slick road conditions and falling snow this morning, with winter weather expected to impact travel throughout the day.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation reports high-impact conditions on several routes surrounding the capital city. Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 87 are slick with snowfall from the Colorado state line to Cheyenne. North of the city, drivers on I-25 will encounter slick spots, strong winds and blowing snow up to Exit 29 at Whitaker Road.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s road map showing conditions in southeast Wyoming at 6:30 a.m. (WYDOT map)

Travel on Interstate 80 and the Cheyenne Service Road is also affected. WYDOT lists conditions as slick with snow and limited visibility between Exit 335 at Buford and Exit 348 at Otto Road. Other local routes, including U.S. Highway 85 and Wyoming Highway 210, are reported as wet and slick in spots with snowfall.

According to the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, a round of light snow will continue to move through the area this morning. Most locations can expect a dusting to an inch of accumulation, though higher amounts are possible between Rawlins and Cheyenne.

Temperatures remain well below average for early December. The NWS forecast calls for a high near 27 degrees today, with wind chill values between zero and 10. Snow is expected to taper off by this afternoon as a cold front brings drier air into the region.

The cold will deepen overnight, with low temperatures dropping to around 10 and wind chills dipping as low as 5 below zero.

Looking ahead, the NWS predicts a sunny but breezy day Thursday, with westerly winds increasing to 20–25 mph and gusts as high as 35 mph. The long-term forecast calls for an active weather pattern, bringing periods of high winds and chances for light snow through the weekend, followed by a gradual warming trend into early next week.

Detailed Forecast

Today: A 40% chance of snow, mainly before 11 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 27. North wind 5–10 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 10. Wind chill values between zero and 10. Southeast wind 5–10 mph becoming west after midnight.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 37. Wind chill values between minus 5 and 5. Breezy, with a west wind 10–15 mph increasing to 20–25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 22. Breezy, with a west wind 20–25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 38. Breezy, with a west northwest wind 10–20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Friday Night: A 20% chance of snow showers after 11 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 22.
Saturday: A 30% chance of snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 40. Breezy.
Saturday Night: A chance of snow showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 22.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 41. Breezy.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 26.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 46. Breezy.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 28.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 50. Breezy.

More on the weather is available at the National Weather Service website.

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Wyoming

Wyoming Troopers find kidnapped Wisconsin teen

Published

20 hours ago

December 2, 2025

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Wyoming Troopers find kidnapped Wisconsin teen | News | wyomingnewsnow.tv

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Wyoming

I moved my family to a tiny Wyoming town for 2 years to save money. Despite the drawbacks, our brief sacrifice paid off.

Published

1 day ago

December 2, 2025

Press Room

I moved my family to a tiny Wyoming town for 2 years to save money. Despite the drawbacks, our brief sacrifice paid off.

The moment my wife and I finished earning our college degrees, we were ready to leave Utah.

We’d been living in Orem, a city with about 95,000 residents, while attending school nearby. Now that we weren’t tied down to the area, we wanted to move elsewhere — ideally, someplace cheaper.

I’d started working as a remote freelance writer, so we were flexible on location and interested in seeing where my modest income would stretch furthest.

Most of all, we wanted to live somewhere that would help us save for a down payment on our first home. Eventually, these goals led us to a tiny town in Wyoming.

Wyoming’s Bridger Valley offered lower rent, taxes, and gas prices

Moving to a smaller, more rural town was a great move financially, but it came with trade-offs.

Christian Allred

After learning about our moving plans, my wife’s aunt suggested looking in Bridger Valley, where she and her husband lived. We’re glad we did.

Located on the southwestern tip of Wyoming by the Utah border, the area had a lot of relatively affordable rentals, and we settled on an apartment in its small town of Mountain Valley.

Our rent was $650 a month — nearly half of what our existing lease would’ve renewed at for about the same living space. Both apartments were two-bedroom, one-bathroom units in a fourplex.

Over the next two years, we discovered other financial benefits of living in Wyoming, such as not having to pay a state income tax or sales tax on most groceries. Even gas was significantly cheaper here than it was in Orem.

As a result, we were able to save more of our income each month.

But living in a small Wyoming town also had its drawbacks

Mountain View has a population of just over 1,000, and many residents work at one of the nearby trona mines, making them a hardy group. I felt like an outlier as a remote worker, and I only met one other person who worked from home while we lived here.

Meanwhile, though we were only a two-hour drive from my wife’s family in Utah, it was far enough that we saw them much less — maybe five or six times a year.

Compared to Orem, there were also fewer amenities: We had a gas station, a grocery store, a bowling alley, a tiny library, a handful of restaurants, and little else. However, we didn’t mind much, especially since we made good friends at church and in the community.

The hardest part was the cold. Winter weather in the area basically lasts half the year, from about November to April, and temperatures regularly drop below freezing.

On occasion, the freeway connecting Mountain View to Utah was even closed due to dangerously icy road conditions. We stayed indoors a lot and missed Utah’s milder winters.

After 2 years, we’d saved enough to buy land in Washington, where we plan to build our first home

There’s a lot to like about small-town living, including how much we were able to save.

Christian Allred

Our move ultimately paid off.

During our time in Wyoming, we saved $20,000 to put toward just over an acre of land near my family in rural Washington.

Today, we own the land outright as we prepare to have our first home built on it. In the meantime, we’re living in my parents’ newly renovated ADU nearby.

Looking back, those cold Wyoming winters and quiet weekends were worth it. We traded convenience and proximity to family for financial breathing room — and in two years, that breathing room helped us buy real estate.

Plus, we came to love so much about remote small-town living, like its slower pace of life and the friends we made. For us, it was exactly the sacrifice we needed to make homeownership possible.

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