Kelly parcel now part of Grand Teton park

JACKSON - Beverly Boynton has lived in Kelly for decades but only been walking the Kelly parcel for two or so years, thinking about the pristine square mile of sagebrush and wildlife habitat as the National Park Service maneuvered to buy it from the State of Wyoming.

The more she walked the parcel, the more she understood how valuable it is for wildlife.

Last spring, Boynton wanted to hike the parcel but was stopped by a herd of 1,000 elk that she didn't want to stampede. She drove around and entered from another side, only to crest a hill and run into 10 bison that didn't much like her presence.

After the National Park Service confirmed Monday that the parcel had been purchased from the state for $100 million, Boynton was more confident in its future - and the future of its wild inhabitants.

"To lose any piece of land is a big deal for wildlife, so I'm ecstatic," she said. "In my mind's eye, I see the animals pouring through."

After more than a decade of political wrangling, the Kelly parcel is now officially part of Grand Teton National Park.

The decision means that the pristine, 640-acre parcel will be preserved in perpetuity, protecting one of the most iconic ungulate migrations in the lower 48 states - the Path of the Pronghorn - and other routes mule deer and elk use to move between winter and summer range.

"The significance of acquiring these is to ensure that, going forward in perpetuity, we will not be faced with the threat of having these parcels have asphalt or stucco or Hardie Plank or fences on it that are damaging to wildlife." ~ Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins

Teton park plans to prevent physical development on the land, which sees little human use but is home to some of western Wyoming's most valuable wildlife species.

When Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins skied out onto the parcel Saturday morning, hours after the paperwork finalizing the deal had been inked, he thought about something Brian Nesvik, the former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, once told him: The greatest threat to the state's wildlife is human development.

"The significance of acquiring these is to ensure that, going forward in perpetuity, we will not be faced with the threat of having these parcels have asphalt or stucco or Hardie Plank or fences on it that are damaging to wildlife," Jenkins said, referring to several inholdings the park has acquired. "It's central to our mission in terms of conserving the resources here for Grand Teton. And one of the most important is a range of wildlife that live on the landscape."

At the same time, Wyoming now will have the opportunity to invest $100 million in education. Before being sold to Teton park, the Kelly parcel was state trust land, which Wyoming officials manage to generate money for Wyoming schools. Over time, Wyoming Treasurer Curt Meier has estimated, the $100 million could net more than a billion dollars if invested in a generational wealth fund.

Sen. Mike Gierau, a Teton County Democrat who was instrumental in getting the Wyoming Legislature to authorize selling the parcel, painted the transaction as an unabashed win for Wyomingites.

"Last year the Kelly parcel raised what, $2,000? Today it raised $100 million," Gierau said. "I've worked on a lot of legislation in my time, but I've never worked on a bill where you get $100 million in a day."

Other conditions tacked onto the sale require Grand Teton National Park to preserve hunting and grazing access. What that will look like, specifically, has yet to be determined, Chief of Staff Jeremy Barnum said. Hunting opportunities should, however, be in line with what Game and Fish offered on the parcel over the past two years, and the park will continue to honor existing grazing leases.

The Park Service will, however, have to determine how to handle other commercial uses of the parcel. Under state ownership of the Kelly parcel, mountain bike and horseback tour companies had leases to operate. The park will have to go through a formal process to determine whether they will be able to operate after this summer.

The feat was accomplished in no small part by the philanthropic machine in Teton County, the wealthiest county in America by some metrics.

Federal policy prohibits the Park Service from buying land for more than its appraised value. Because the parcel was appraised for only $62.5 million, that was the most the park could pay.

Morgan Timms, Jackson Hole News&Guide

Teton park Superintendent Chip Jenkins addresses state officials in November during a public hearing about the Kelly parcel at Teton County Library.

The Grand Teton National Park Foundation raised the remainder from three anonymous families, about 400 donors from 46 six states who made gifts ranging from $15 million to less than $15, and nonprofits and businesses with conservation interests. Those included the National Park Foundation, Jackson Hole Land Trust and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation via Walmart's Acres for America Program. The Conservation Fund provided a loan that allowed some donors to spread commitments over multiple years, and the transaction to close.

In total the foundation raised $37.6 million, more than one-and-a-half times what Old Bill's Fun Run raised for the community this year. While Old Bill's supports nonprofits across Teton County, the $37.6 million raised by the Grand Teton National Park Foundation was dedicated solely to purchasing the Kelly parcel.

"Our supporters recognized the risk involved," said Leslie Mattson, president of the foundation. "Permanent protection of land is a really exciting thing to be a part of."

But Mattson said what really inspired her were smaller donations that poured in from people who read about the Kelly parcel in the news.

One day, she came in and read about 100 emails with notes saying things like "Get it done" or "Just protect this property."

"Those were the kind of things that brought me to tears, reading those small messages," Mattson said. "I'm really grateful."

Over the past year the Kelly parcel's story became a national saga after Wyoming officials proposed auctioning the state trust land on the open market, prompting outcry from nearly 10,000 Wyomingites who gave public comment, worried about development. Given the parcel's ecological significance, their overarching ask was straightforward: Sell the land to Teton park and protect it.

But even though state officials all but abandoned the idea of an auction in December 2023, the parcel's path to the National Park Service wasn't simple.

Though Wyoming already had sold three inholdings - state trust land surrounded by public land and, specifically, Teton park - to the service, its legislative authorization to sell the Kelly parcel, the fourth and final inholding, had expired.

As the Wyoming Legislature tangled with reauthorizing a sale, lawmakers upped the sale price from $62.5 million to $100 million and tied the sale to a controversial Bureau of Land Management plan for 3.6 million acres near Rock Springs. While the state is still fighting the final version of the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, Gov. Mark Gordon certified that the BLM had backed off specific proposals that threatened oil and gas development for the sake of conservation.

Though tying the Kelly parcel's fate to the Rock Springs plan complicated the transaction, Gierau said it was necessary to get the sale authorization through the conservative Wyoming Legislature.

"It turned some of those Rock Spring folks into supporters," he said. "We needed their votes. Every piece was critical."

The Department of the Interior, which oversees both the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, acted quickly after Gordon certified the transaction Friday afternoon. Later that same day, a patent transferring the Kelly parcel from the State of Wyoming to the United States was recorded with the Teton County Clerk's Office and signed by Gordon, Jason Crowder, interim director of Wyoming's Office of State Lands and Investments, and a state attorney. The deal officially was completed Monday after the Federal Reserve System opened and the money was transferred to the state.

The closing means the Kelly parcel transaction overcame headwinds from some Wyoming officials who sought to stop the sale and wait for a better deal from the incoming Trump administration. The hard-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus promised to overturn the authorization in the next legislative session, which is set to start Jan. 14.

In addition to the Park Foundation's philanthropy, the Park Service paid $62.4 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the federal government's primary vehicle for acquiring land, whose money is from offshore oil and gas leases. Typically, the Park Service spends $100 million a year from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Kelly parcel took nearly two-thirds of that annual sum.

The scale of that contribution shows how important the Kelly parcel was to the Department of the Interior, said Rob Wallace, a Teton County resident who oversaw the Park Service during the first Trump administration. Wallace lobbied aggressively for the Kelly parcel sale.

"It's a testament to how much people care about our state," Wallace said.

But in his view, the sale never would have happened had Wyomingites not spoken loudly and clearly in favor of selling the land to the park.

"It's a national asset, but the people of Wyoming, the governor, the land board stepped up to make this happen."

Crowder, of the state lands office, confirmed Monday that Wyoming had received the $100 million. The deal is sealed, and "we're extremely grateful for it," he said.

Officials from Teton park and its foundation painted the transaction as part of Jackson Hole's long history of philanthropic ties to public lands. Though his actions were controversial at the time, John D. Rockefeller Jr. purchased most of the valley floor in what is now Grand Teton National Park and donated it to the federal government.

The Kelly parcel's story is not fully over, however. In November, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder lobbied to swap the parcel for land in the Powder River Basin.

While Degenfelder didn't get her way, she, Gordon and Wyoming's other top elected officials did vote unanimously to spend $162 million - from the sale of the Kelly parcel and the other three Teton park inholdings - toward purchasing as many as 120,000 acres in the Powder River Basin.

That land would be used for oil and gas development, revenues from which would fund schools.

Crowder said his office has signed a letter of intent with BLM Wyoming Director David Archuleta to begin identifying what land the state could purchase and what transactions could look like. It's as yet uncertain whether all $162 million will be spent on land.

"It will largely depend on the lands we can identify and in large part the process we identify as well," Crowder said. "Can a transaction happen at once, or can it be phased over time?"