Hope for the Kelly Parcel—with a catch

Friday, February 23, 2024

Two cow elk see eye-to-eye in Grand Teton National Park. Courtesy Howie Garber Images

The Wyoming state legislature appears poised to offer a lifeline for the Kelly Parcel, a one square-mile section of state land inside Grand Teton National Park that was at risk of being sold to developers.

Late Wednesday night, the Wyoming House passed a bill that would put a $100 million price tag on a sale of the parcel to the National Park Service—significantly more than the parcel's $62 million appraised value, but not a deal-breaking price like the $750 million proposal that was designed to kill the sale entirely. On Thursday, the Wyoming Senate followed suit, passing a similar bill.

Lawmakers attached strings to each chamber's bill that will have to be resolved before final passage. The House and Senate adopted separate amendments that would guarantee hunting and grazing on the parcel, something that is generally not allowed in national parks, but would not be unprecedented for individual park units.

The state House also attached an amendment tying the sale of the Kelly Parcel to the Bureau of Land Management's draft plan for its Rock Springs field office. That amendment would let Wyoming's governor block the sale if BLM adopts the right-of-way restrictions and oil leasing plan in the agency's proposed management plan.

The amendment's sponsor, Rep. Clark Sith of Rock Springs, was unapologetic about holding the sale hostage in exchange for oil in another part of the state.

“What this amendment says, effectively, to the federal government is, ‘If you want us to play nice in the sandbox with respect to the Kelly Parcel, then you have to play nice in the sandbox with us in southwest Wyoming,’” Sith said.

Still, public lands advocates celebrated the victory as the sale approached the finish line.

“There’s a long history of sportsmen asking for this to go to the park,“ said Jessi Johnson of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. Johnson told WyoFile, “To have [our advocacy] recognized on the floor, finally being heard, that was powerful.”

Digging into BLM's solar plan

In the latest episode of CWP's podcast, The Landscape, Kate and Aaron are joined by Justin Meuse, Director of Government Relations for Climate and Energy at the Wilderness Society, to talk about a proposal from the Bureau of Land Management to prioritize around 22 million acres of public land for utility scale solar development across the West. They discuss why planning matters, how much solar development to actually expect if this plan proceeds, and how you can get involved. Listen now on Apple Podcasts or read a transcript of the episode.

                            Quick hits
                        

Conservation-focused family looks for new ranch after Colorado ends lease after 25 years

9News

Opinion: Legislation would provide funding to protect salmon, other wildlife

Alaska Beacon

                            Quote of the day
                        

The industry’s household names — Chevron, ExxonMobil and others — often reap the biggest profits from any given oil field. As the booms fade and production falls, wells are sold to a string of ever-smaller companies, many of which let the infrastructure fall into disrepair while violations and leaks skyrocket. The number of idled wells soars too, as companies warehouse them to avoid costly cleanup. By this point, regulators’ hands are tied because the bonds states demand to use as leverage are so small. Seeing little incentive to plug wells and get their tiny bonds back, companies slip into bankruptcy court, where executives are protected from their environmental liabilities. When the dust settles, the government is on the hook for the now-orphaned wells.

“The practice is so tried-and-true that researchers and activists call it ‘the playbook.’”

—Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Nick Bowlin, Capital & Main

                            Picture This

                        

@usfws

Three-Toe Thursday, anyone? American Three-toed Woodpeckers inhabit ranges aligning with boreal spruce and fir forests of Canada and Alaska, including portions of the Western United States and throughout the Rocky Mountains. Three-toed woodpecker males are identified by their golden crown, while both male and females sport barred flanks, spotted black wings, and their namesake: three toes to leverage their foraging in disturbed coniferous forests, often peeling flakes of barks to reach spruce-beetle larvae and other insects.

🥁 Listen for their high-pitched call and rapid drum that softens on the end. Look for them in recently burned areas, other places with dead/dying trees, and in places with beetle breakouts.

💀 ⚠️ These woodpeckers are sensitive to deadly pesticides that are used to kill bark beetle outbreaks, while short-cycled timber harvests and forest fragmentation reduces their habitat.

Photo by Colin Canterbury/USFWS. An American Three-toed Woodpecker at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.