The potential sale of a parcel of land bordering Grand Teton National Park is shaping up to be one of the most controversial land management issues facing the Wyoming Legislature this session.
State officials proposed putting the so-called Kelly Parcel up for auction to the open market a few months back, sparking mass opposition from conservationists across the state who want to see it joined with the national park.
Now, an amendment to the budget moving through the Legislature could finally pave the way for that sale – if it survives.
Wyoming Public Radio’s state government reporter Chris Clements talked to Jackson Democrat Senator Mike Gierau, who's leading a charge to sell the Kelly Parcel.
Editor’s Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Chris Clements: What do you say to folks whose opinion on the Kelly Parcel is that it shouldn't be sold - it's a priceless asset, the state shouldn't sell it at all? What do you say to that?
Mike Gierau: It's a great question. And the bottom line is: this wasn’t started by me, it was started by a piece of legislation that was passed years ago. It said that we are going to study and monetize high value properties in Teton County for disposal. So that lit the fuse. The Office of State Lands and Investment has been working towards that call because that's what the legislation says. I fought that legislation. I fought it because I would just as soon not have sold it. But if that's the will – and that was the will of the bodies to say, 'This is what we're going to do' – now it’s like, 'Okay, well, let's sell it.' And so let's get the best return for the school children in Wyoming because that's what the Constitution says.
What seemed to happen from my vantage point over the past year was that people felt that the appraised price that was agreed to by the state, and the potential buyer, the National Park Service, as the value at 64-point-whatever million dollars [wasn’t enough]. In talking with legislators, talking with other folks, actually standing out on the parcel one afternoon with the Speaker of the House, he said, ‘I think $100 million would be a fair price.’ And I’ve been working towards that number. And the great folks at the National Park History Foundation, National Park Foundation, have worked tirelessly just to get to a point where they would say ‘Okay (we can pay it).’ The federal government can't pay more than the appraised price, by law. And so philanthropy is going to have to step in to fill that gap. They have agreed to try.
Why I put it in the budget, instead of a bill, was because I wanted to have it have a shelf life. The budget has a shelf life of two years. The reason why we're doing this is because of a bill that passed a few years ago that will continue to live on until it's repealed. And so the state is going to have to keep trying to do something with it because that's the law. What I want to do is, either sell it or not. If this passes, it's going to have a shelf life of the budget. That's through the next biennium.
And so the folks that are raising the money will have a window to do this deal. The Constitution says that this money is supposed to go to the Common School Fund. I said, ‘We are going to authorize $100 million to the Common School Fund from the sale of the Kelly Parcel.’ That's what this is all about. And so that's why it's in the budget because we're just making sure that money goes to where it's supposed to go.
CC: Let's say that the section on the Kelly Parcel in the budget bill, an amendment does erase it, and this effort fails. Do you think that state land managers would again pursue the option of auctioning it off on the open market?
MG: Yes.
CC: So that’s what’s at stake here.
MG: Absolutely.
CC: Representative Walters’ bill on the Kelly Parcel failed to meet introduction. And I just wanted to ask you about that legislation, what's your thoughts on his take on what to do with the parcel?
MG: Well, my take on that was that the numbers that were in there were aspirational. And I'm trying to be as charitable as I can here because I don't think anyone, including the bringers of that bill, had any intention that that was the value of that property. My summation was that they're putting a value on it that was so high that it wouldn't sell. I understand their goal, but that leaves wiggle room that, frankly, I wasn't comfortable with. Because they weren't willing to put terms like ‘not less than,’ (in their bill) that's in our section in the budget, so it's not a subjective thing. Like, ‘Oh, we got $63 million, so it's pretty close so we'll do that.’ No. $100 million.
CC: When you went to the parcel and you saw it for yourself – obviously you represent Teton County – what was your reaction?
MG: I've been on, by, and around that parcel for 40-plus years. It's in my district. It's in the DNA of everyone who lives in Teton County, and who holds park values, holds our values of Teton County, very close, as so many of us do. And so that parcel, Antelope Flats, where my good friend Andy Schwartz, former representative Schwartz, and the Legislature put an effort through with a lot of the same players to get that parcel conveyed to Grand Teton National Park.
It's not lost upon me: it's now the 101st Anniversary of the founding of the Jackson Hole Monument, which became Grand Teton National Park. Every politician from the local level to the state level fought that (at the time). Everyone that I've ever talked to that was involved has said it was one of the greater mistakes of their life. I'm hoping that the Wyoming Legislature reaffirms a commitment that I think all Wyomingites have, that hard working Wyoming families have, to the goals of the national park. And that's what this is all about.
CC: Do you think that it's likely it doesn't make it, that the Kelly Parcel section in the budget bill does not make it?
MG: I've been here long enough to know everything's a possibility. And it won't be a done deal until the governor signs the budget bill and we're all on our way home. For me, that means after the governor signs the bill, after we gavel out and I'm at about Rock Springs, when I turn the corner there at Rock Springs and start heading at 181 to Jackson, I stop and get gas and a pop and then head and head north. That's when I’ll believe it.
