‘Sell less land,’ forest hears during meetings
By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
November 20, 2009
Forest Service officials should sell fewer acres of administrative land, if any, on North Cache Street, people who attended two meetings Wednesday in Jackson said.
Meeting attendees also asked Wyoming’s congressional delegation to step up and find funding to replace aging and inefficient buildings in Bridger-Teton National Forest as well as provide more employee housing.
Bridger-Teton officials are seeking comments on a proposal to sell up to 11 acres of the forest supervisor’s office site to raise the estimated $30 million needed to replace buildings and build housing for Forest Service employees.
At a noon meeting at the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance office, Bridger-Teton planning and lands staff officer Michael Schrotz called the land sale a tool that will allow the forest to keep operating.
“Nobody wants to sell the property,” he said. “We keep asking for other means to get this funded.”
The forest has been passed over for funding opportunities, including stimulus funding. Officials recently reapplied for more than $9 million in stimulus funds.
Jackson resident Joe Albright said the public would oppose the Forest Service if it went forward with forest Supervisor Kniffy Hamilton’s proposal, which involves selling 10 acres, building 18 homes on Nelson Drive, and moving the fire crew and equipment to the Cottonwood site south of Hoback Junction. The plan also would force eight homeowners to move their manufactured homes from North Cache to Cottonwood at their own expense.
“Unless you make this a small parcel ... you’re going to get a referendum to defeat it,” Albright said. “My personal advice is to [sell a small parcel] and encumber the rest of it.”
During an evening meeting hosted by the East Jackson Network community group, attendees mostly opposed selling any land. But if some land must be sold, they favored selling about 3 acres of frontage along North Cache.
East Jackson resident Charlie Payne suggested lobbying Interior Department officials and Wyoming’s congressional delegation to find the money somewhere else.
“Let them know it’s a horrible idea to sell public land to fund your building needs,” he said. “That’s what we pay taxes for, right?”
Comments on the sale are due by 4:30 p.m. Nov. 30. Mail letters to: Attn. Carole “Kniffy” Hamilton, Bridger-Teton National Forest Supervisor, P.O. Box 1888, Jackson, WY 83001, or e-mail to comments-intermtn-bridger-teton@fs.fed.us and write “Conveyance Project” in the subject line.
The environmental assessment regarding the proposal is available by clicking on the “conveyance” links at www.fs.fed.us/r4/btnf/projects.
