Drop the Swap!

by Caroline Byrd

The proposed Squirrel Meadows for Grand Targhee Ski Base land exchange is a bad idea. Not only is it detrimental to the environment and the local economy, it’s simply bad public policy. According to a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released in early August, the Targhee National Forest intends to give the Grand Targhee Resort public land at the base of its ski hill — land worth tens of millions of dollars — for a paltry $13,820 per acre. By comparison, land near the Teton Village Ski Resort sells for $62,000 to $126,000 an acre, and in Alta, just down the road from Grand Targhee, a half-acre goes for $55,000.

The Forest Service’s preferred alternative would trade up to 195 acres at the ski area for some 385 acres at Squirrel Meadows. Last year, the Forest Service appraised the Squirrel Meadows property at $7,000 per acre. The math’s easy, but it really doesn’t add up.

The land exchange would create a 195-acre private land inholding seven miles inside the Targhee National Forest at a time when official Forest Service policy is to eliminate inholdings and all the problems they cause. Once this land is private, the public will never get it back; it will be worth more than the government could ever afford to re-purchase. You might as well ask the government to buy back Teton Village, Aspen, Big Sky or Vail.

This proposal to privatize national forest land has been killed by public opposition more than once. Three years ago, the Forest Service rejected a similar proposal on the grounds that creating a new private inholding was not in the public interest. So it came as a surprise when Targhee Forest Supervisor Jerry Reese proposed the swap yet again in the fall of 1997.

This time, the Forest Service has repeatedly assured the public that its purpose is to protect important grizzly bear habitat at Squirrel Meadows, an expansive wetland system five miles south of Yellowstone National Park near the Winegar Hole Wilderness. However, the land occupied by Grand Targhee Resort is also important to wildlife. The road to the resort passes through elk winter range, and the ski area itself is important for grizzly bears and a host of rare and sensitive species like wolverines and great grey owls. If the base of the ski hill becomes private property, high-density development will be the predictable outcome, effectively eliminating wildlife habitat.

Without a doubt, preserving Squirrel Meadows is a valuable goal, but not if it means sacrificing one part of the ecosystem to protect another. In fact, the DEIS itself presents an eminently better choice: acquiring Squirrel Meadows with available monies from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF contains billions of dollars earmarked for purchasing ecologically important private inholdings in the midst of federal lands. The DEIS makes a compelling argument for preserving the meadows for grizzly bears. The next step should be gaining congressional approval for its purchase. WOC and all the other conservation groups working on this issue would gladly help support the purchase of Squirrel Meadows.

Intensive private development around Grand Targhee could produce a cascade of environmental, economic and social problems on the west slope of the Tetons. Privatizing Grand Targhee will accelerate growth, generating even more rapid losses of agricultural lands and open space, raising taxes to maintain over-burdened county services and boosting living costs. And while the resort itself is in Wyoming, the town of Driggs and the bulk of Teton Valley are in Idaho. Wyoming will decide how the resort’s private lands are developed and will reap the tax benefits; Idaho will pay for the burdens on its infrastructure and have to deal with shortages of affordable housing.

Fully 70 percent of public comments the Forest Service received during the scoping review for this proposal opposed the swap. Yet the Forest Service continues to push the land exchange by overstating potential development threats at Squirrel Meadows. At the same time, the agency understates the impacts to Teton Valley’s environment, infrastructure and economy. According to the DEIS, the creation of a new town with almost 1,000 new housing units, along with a retail and commercial center, will hardly be noticed by Valley residents. On the other hand, the draft plan implies that Squirrel Meadows will immediately be developed, jeopardizing the future survival of grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone.

The DEIS offers five alternatives. One of them, "E," directs the Forest Service to purchase or acquire by donation the Squirrel Meadows property and leave the lands at Grand Targhee Resort in public ownership. In an alert we sent out in September, we asked you to write to the Forest Service and support alternative "E." The deadline for public comments has been extended until October 20, so if you haven’t already done so, please write a letter urging the Targhee National Forest to DROP THE SWAP and select Alternative "E."
 

What You Can Do

Contact:
Teton Basin Ranger District
Targhee National Forest
DEIS Comments
P.O. Box 777
Driggs, ID 83422
Phone (208) 354-2312
Fax (208) 354-8505

Or e-mail them at:
pcomment/r4_targhee@fs.fed.us