November 2007 Alliance Action

1) U.S. Sen. Barrasso Introduces Bill to Protect Wyoming Range
2) Other Public Lands News
3) State Game and Fish works on Wolf Management Plan
4) Are Sage Grouse Threatened in the Upper Snake Region?
5) Have a Say on Jackson Hole’s Future
6) Affordable Housing Discussions Continue
7) Other County Development Matters
8) Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Memberships Make Great Gifts!
9) Upcoming Events
10) Valley Echoes

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1) U.S. Sen. Barrasso Introduces Bill to Protect Wyoming Range

Of all the threats facing the forest that surrounds Jackson Hole, none could cause greater harm to wildlife, the environment and our tourism-based economy than energy development. On Oct. 25, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso introduced federal legislation that, if passed, would prohibit future oil and gas leasing on the Wyoming Range of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Based on work begun by the late U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, the Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2007 would also allow buybacks of exploration and development rights already sold to energy companies.

A diverse coalition that includes conservationists, sportsmen and many others who believe this 1.2-million-acre area southeast of Jackson is too special to drill helped craft this bill, but your help is needed to make sure it progresses through Congress. What’s the next step? It’s up to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to schedule a hearing. However, the bill may well end up mired in the committee’s end-of-the-year backlog of land and energy legislation. (This backlog includes the Snake Headwaters Legacy Act -- visit www.jhalliance.org/Library/Alerts/SnakeRiver.8-07.pdf for more information about it.)

Please help by sending a note of support to bill sponsor U.S. Sen. Barrasso at:
senator_jbarrasso@barrasso.senate.gov or
307 Dirkson Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510, (202) 224-6441;

and to co-sponsor U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi at:
379 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510, (202) 224-3424,
Email via: http://enzi.senate.gov/email.htm

Please also consider asking U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin to add her support at:
1114 Longworth, HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515, (202) 225-2311,
Email via: http://www.house.gov/cubin/zip_auth.html

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2) Other Public Lands News

The current Bridger-Teton National Forest management plan revision process remains on hold pending a federal decision about how this process is to proceed. (Please see “Forest Planning Rule Comments Due by Oct. 22” at www.jhalliance.org/Library/AllianceAction/Oct07AA.htm for details.) Meanwhile, a number of other matters affecting public lands in the region remain in play:

HOBACK WELLS -- The energy company that owns leases on 64,000 acres of public and private land in the Upper Hoback area has submitted a new proposal for oil and gas drilling to the Forest Service, which expects to begin the scoping process for an Environmental Impact Statement in late November. The new EIS replaces one that was to analyze only the drilling of three exploratory wells. About 19,000 people commented on the original EIS this past spring -- almost all were opposed to drilling in the forest. In June, Plains Exploration and Production Company asked Forest Service officials to expand its environmental analysis and let the company develop all the leases it owns in the area instead. (Visit www.jhalliance.org/Library/Alerts/HobackWells.8-07.pdf for background information.) Please check next month’s Alliance Action for details on how you can comment on the new proposal.

NORTHERN ROCKIES ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION ACT -- NREPA, H.R 1975, was heard by the Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands on Oct. 18. One of the most ambitious conservation bills to be introduced in Congress, it’s an effort to protect almost 20 million acres of public lands in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. If passed, it would safeguard wildlife corridors along the Northern Rockies and provide economic incentives for protection of these lands. A bipartisan coalition introduced the bill in April, but one of the biggest roadblocks to its passage is the lack of support by delegates from Wyoming. U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin called the bill a “147-page assault on our Western way of life.” The Conservation Alliance encourages everyone to write our Wyoming delegation (see contact information above) and express your support for the passage of this bill to protect at-risk lands in the West.

ROADLESS AREAS – Following a complex legal trail, the Clinton-era roadless rule, which put about 58 million acres of federal land off limits to new road construction, is back in court again. In 2003, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled that the roadless rule was invalid, saying that the Clinton administration had in effect established wilderness areas and that the law allows only Congress to do that. Environmental groups argued that the Clinton rule was properly enacted and established roadless areas unique from wilderness. They appealed Brimmer’s ruling, but before the appeals court issued a decision, the Bush administration released a new rule replacing the Clinton rule. (Brimmer’s decision was eventually vacated.) The Clinton rule came back into effect last fall, when a federal magistrate in California rejected the Bush administration’s rule, which had required governors to petition the federal government to protect roadless areas in their states. New road construction is currently prohibited on about 3.25 million acres of public land in Wyoming, including 1.43 million acres in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Since logging, mining and energy development relies heavily on new roads, the roadless rule helps protect wildlife habitat in these areas. But now the case -- brought by Wyoming, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, mining companies and other western states -- is back in Brimmer’s lap again. Brimmer has said he doesn’t expect a new ruling anytime soon.

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3) State Game and Fish works on Wolf Management Plan

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could remove Rocky Mountain gray wolves from endangered species protection as early as this February, and state officials want to make sure Wyoming’s wolves are included in the delisting. In September, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission released a draft plan for managing wolves once they’re delisted. About 352 public comments were submitted -- they’re available at: http://gf.state.wy.us/WolfManagement/index.asp.

At the end of 2006, Wyoming had an estimated population of 311 wolves -- about 136 of them within Yellowstone National Park. The draft plan requires Wyoming to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs of wolves -- eight pairs within Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, and seven outside the two parks and the John. D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. Wyoming’s plan also agrees to protect a minimum of 100 wolves. However, it could well mean the death of up 200 wolves, simply because they are wolves.

Game and Fish commissioners are scheduled to consider the Wyoming Wolf Management Plan at 1 p.m. on Nov. 16 in Thermopolis. Although they’re expected to adopt the plan without changes, your comments will be important during the actual writing of Wyoming’s wolf regulations. This process will likely involve at least two public meetings in Jackson -- one in December or January focusing on hunting and trapping regulations, and the other at a later date regarding the wolves’ Trophy Game status and the state’s livestock depredation compensation obligations. We’ll keep you posted.

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4) Are Sage Grouse Threatened in the Upper Snake Region?

Across the West, states are working on management plans to halt a decades-long decline in sage grouse numbers. Now, after two years of research, the Jackson Hole group of Wyoming’s citizens’ sage grouse committee will present its findings and recommendations to the public on Nov. 1. The Upper Snake River Basin Sage Grouse Working Group will hold its discussion from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Jackson office, 420 N. Cache. Contact Franz Camenzind at the Conservation Alliance at (307) 733-9417 for details, and read our piece on Endangered Species for background information. Additional information is also available at http://gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/wildlife_management/sagegrouse/index.asp.

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5) Have a Say on Jackson Hole’s Future

The Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan, which guides our community’s growth and development, is being revised. Your input is vital to help protect Jackson Hole’s character, wildlife and scenery. It’s up to all of us to voice our concerns and ideas, so we can collectively create a better Comp Plan that truly protects what makes Jackson Hole special. Please speak up! Visit www.jacksontetonplan.com for details and to submit comments on the website blog (click on Public Input, then on Get Involved, then on Join the Plan Blog). You may also email your comments to feedback@jacksontetonplan.com.

The following public meetings have been scheduled for early November:

Nov. 7, 6 to 8 p.m., St. John's Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 170 N. Glenwood St. -- Clarion Associates, the Comp Plan consultant, plans to hold a public community workshop. The objectives are to: share ideas about the working vision and goals; define community character and preferences; and develop preliminary ideas for land use concepts and alternatives.

Nov. 8, 10 a.m. to noon, 4-H Building, 255 W. Deloney Ave. -- Clarion Associates will meet for the second time with the Comp Plan stakeholder advisory group.

Nov. 8, 3 to 5 p.m., County Commissioners’ Chambers, 200 S. Willow St., Jackson -- The Jackson Town Council and Teton Board of County Commissioners will meet with Clarion Associates.

Nov. 8, 6 to 8 p.m., County Commissioners’ Chambers, 200 S. Willow St., Jackson -- Town and County Planning Commission members will meet with Clarion Associates.

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6) Affordable Housing Discussions Continue

To help alleviate Jackson Hole’s housing crunch, the Town Council and Teton Board of County Commissioners are moving toward increasing the amount of deed-restricted affordable housing developers are required to provide. At a joint meeting on Sept. 10, the Teton County Housing Authority asked commissioners and council members to either enact an emergency resolution to increase the mitigation rate from 15 to 25 percent, or begin writing new regulations to make the switch.
At a special meeting on Oct. 31, commissioners considered whether to extend their emergency resolution while both the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners hold public hearings on the issue of whether to adopt it on a permanent basis.  Text amendments are tentatively scheduled to go before the County Planning Commission on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. and before County Commissioners on either Nov. 20 or Dec. 18 at 9 a.m., both in the County Commissioners’ Chambers at 200 S. Willow.

Copies of the emergency resolution are available at the Teton County Planning and Development Department, 200 S. Willow Street, and at http://www.tetonwyo.org/plan.

Jackson’s Town Council voted to ask its planning staff to draft an ordinance to change the mitigation rates in the town’s land development regulations. These text amendment changes are scheduled to go before the Town Planning Commission on Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m., Town Council Chambers, 150 E. Pearl Ave.

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7) Other County Development Matters

In addition to the above items, the Conservation Alliance continues to monitor other county private lands matters. Here's a brief roundup of meetings at which you may share your concerns; you may also email county comments to commissioners@tetonwyo.org. (All times and dates are subject to change -- please call Teton County at (307) 733-8094 for confirmation.) For more information on all community planning issues, please contact Kristy Bruner at kristy@jhalliance.org or (307) 733-9417.

GRAND TARGHEE PLOT RESEMBLES “GROUNDHOG DAY” -- The Teton Board of County Commissioners met Oct. 16 for what many again thought would be the final hearing on Grand Targhee’s bid for resort zoning. But due to changes made to the application by Targhee’s owner, the final vote has tentatively been put off until 9 a.m. on Dec. 11 at the Commissioners’ Chambers, 200 S. Willow St.

On Sept. 5, county commissioners set 11 conditions to reduce the scope of proposed development at Targhee. Major items included limiting the number of lodging and employee units to 450, and establishing a fixed boundary to Targhee’s 120-acre site through a conservation easement to prevent future expansion. The owners balked and returned in October with a counter offer. They asked for 525 single-family homes, cabins, townhomes, condos and hotel units, not including the units required to house up to 40 employees on site. They also asked for 175,000 square feet of commercial space. County commissioners want to restrict commercial and resort services to 120,000 square feet. The commissioners asked the County Planning Department to have a staff report analyzing Targhee’s latest proposal available to the public by mid-November.

The Conservation Alliance remains concerned that the magnitude of this proposal will have serious off-site impacts on the fragile public wildlands surrounding Grand Targhee. Please support the commissioners’ stance to limit development by emailing your comments to commissioners@tetonwyo.org, and by attending the Dec. 11 hearing. Since there’s always a chance that the hearing date will change, check www.jhalliance.org for any updates.
Background information is available at:
www.jhalliance.org/Library/Perspectives/GrandTarghee.10-07.htm and
www.jhalliance.org/Library/PressReleases/GrandTarghee.6-07.htm.

OSPREY CREEK (old Teton Village Road KOA) DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL -- Nov. 13, 9 a.m., County Commissioners’ Chambers, 200 S. Willow St., Jackson.  This proposal, approved by the Planning Commission in June, includes an amendment to rezone the Osprey Creek property to a Planned Unit Development for Affordable Housing district and to approve its sketch plan. After receiving county commissioners’ feedback this past summer, the developer has changed the plan by moving all market lots and building envelopes out of the Natural Resource Overlay, reducing the number of units from 88 to 74 (36 market and 38 affordable housing), and integrating the affordable and market units. The Conservation Alliance commends the developer for removing development from the NRO, which is a designation on town and county zoning maps that indicates lands with special wildlife values, but questions the long-term consequences of such a significant upzone on a 15-acre parcel in an area intended for low density.

NATURAL RESOURCE OVERLAY HABITAT MITIGATION -- Nov. 6, 9 a.m., County Commissioners' Chambers, 200 S. Willow. The Teton Board of County Commissioners will discuss an amendment to refine and clarify the habitat mitigation requirements in the Natural Resource Overlay. Currently, if developers disturb private lands that the county has determined are critical wildlife habitat, they're required to improve habitat on other private land in the county on a basis of two acres of habitat enhancement for every one acre of disturbed NRO land. One of the modifications being considered includes a questionable alternative for developers to provide mitigation on public lands, if "no reasonable options exist to complete the required mitigation on private land."  The Conservation Alliance does not support the option to provide mitigation on public lands.

SNAKE RIVER CANYON RANCH – Nov. 26, 6 p.m., County Commissioners Chambers, 200 S. Willow.  This proposal is now entering its second round of the review process. On Sept. 11, County commissioners voted 4-1 to send the application back to the Planning Commission, suggesting that the applicant should not have attempted to quickly push such significant changes through the planning process. Of interest in this next round is the degree to which the applicant is willing to modify the application. In general, the application proposes a shift from a lodge-based resort to a residential-scale development at the old Astoria Hot Springs near Hoback Junction. Throughout the process, planning staff has done an excellent job of outlining reasons that the application should be denied. In general, the Conservation Alliance questions the following: the increase in disturbance to Natural Resource Overlay lands (and inconsistencies between the applicant’s and the environmental assessment report’s estimates); the overall change in the development pattern on the parcel (and the net increase of nearly 145,000 square feet of development); and the extent of development slated to occur within the 150-foot setback of the Snake River.

TETON MEADOWS RANCH (Seherr-Thoss property) -- Hearings to be determined. The Conservation Alliance is in the preliminary stages of analyzing a proposal to build a 500-unit development on 288 acres of the Seherr-Thoss property in South Park. The developer is seeking a zoning change from Rural to NC-2 (under which development of vacant land can only occur if it’s considered to be “infill” between existing subdivisions). The developer’s stated primary goal is to “target all homes and lots to the Jackson workforce, to be sold at below-market prices to qualified buyers.” In addition to the required 15 percent of affordable housing, the applicant proposes donating lots to fulfill another 10 percent (described as “hybrid affordable”). The remaining 75 percent is being promoted as “homestead ownership,” a new affordable-housing product. Under homestead ownership, initial and future purchases of these 375 units and/or lots would be restricted by requirements such as: Buyers must work a minimum of 1,500 hours a year in Teton County; buyers may not own other property in Teton County at the time of move-in; sellers must occupy their home for at least two years before selling; and building permits must be submitted within three years of lot purchase.

At this preliminary stage of review, the Conservation Alliance’s concerns include: the timing of such a major proposal during the initial stages of the Comprehensive Plan update process; the appropriateness of the proposed zone change from Rural to NC-2; the appropriateness of the location for high density; and inadequate definition of the “Homestead Affordable” category.

BEAR-PROOF TRASH CONTAINERS -- Drought conditions, a shortage of berries and acorns, and increased development in bear country have driven bears to town in search of food, escalating conflicts with people. Wyoming Game and Fish officials say they have responded to roughly 175 such conflicts so far this year -- more than the past five years combined. Teton County commissioners are in the process of evaluating an amendment that would require homeowners in certain areas of the county to use bear-proof trash containers and reduce other bear attractants on private land. The Conservation Alliance strongly supports and commends these proactive efforts to minimize conflicts with bears, and would like to see them phased in countywide. For more information, please visit www.tetonwyo.org/plan and click on the “Proposed Bear Conflict Mitigation and Prevention Amendment” link in the Announcement box.

WILSON “MIXED-USE” VILLAGE -- Open House Meeting for Wilson Sub-Area Plan and Mixed-Use Village Amendments to Teton County Land Development Regulations -- Nov. 1, 5:30-7:30 p.m., New Wilson School, Wilson.  This meeting is a follow-up to the Oct. 4 meeting.  In general, the goal of this draft plan is to take the work of previous planning efforts in 2001 and 2003 one step further with the development of proposed land development regulations and zoning changes. The study area is approximately 180 acres and includes properties on both sides of the Highway 22 corridor. The Conservation Alliance is in the initial stages of evaluating the draft plan, which is scheduled to go before the County Planning Commission on Dec. 10, 6 p.m., County Commissioners' Chambers, 200 S. Willow.

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8) Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Memberships Make Great Gifts!

The holidays will be here before we know it and now’s a great time to consider giving your friends and family members Alliance gift memberships. They’re a thoughtful way to share your love of Jackson Hole, and perhaps inspire new conservation advocates. Please visit www.jhalliance.org/join.htm for information on member benefits, and click on “Give a Gift Membership” for our secure online donation system. Or simply call us at (307) 733-9417 or stop by our office at 685 S. Cache St. for more information.

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9) Upcoming Events

SATURDAY, Nov. 3, 6:30 to 9 p.m., Center for the Arts, Dance Studio One
Thrillhead Creations will present “Return to Schralpton,” a film about winter backcountry recreation that also focuses on environmental stewardship and avalanche awareness. Thrillhead’s sponsors have invited the Alliance to distribute information about its Don’t Poach the Powder campaign during this event.

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 5, 6 to 9 p.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Annual Meeting and Holiday Party
Please save the date for this popular event, which this year will feature a presentation on Living with Wildlife by Charlie Craighead, author of "Who Ate the Backyard?" A short business meeting will start at 6 p.m., to be followed by Charlie's talk at 7 p.m., then enjoy live music with Margo Valiante from 8 to 9 p.m. Holiday beverages and hors d'oeuvres will be served. Please help us celebrate another year of keeping Jackson Hole wild and beautiful! ($5 suggested donation.)
(Contributions of beverages and holiday treats very much appreciated!)
Please click here for details about Charlie's talk.

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10) Valley Echoes

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.”

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Alliance Action is a publication of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance is dedicated to responsible land stewardship in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to ensure that human activities are in harmony with the area’s irreplaceable wildlife, scenic, and other natural resources. The Alliance is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization.

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