Wyoming Will sell a 1-square-mile (2.6-square-kilometer) parcel of pristine land along the border Grand Teton National Park The $100 million was given to the US government after Governor Mark Gordon signed a deal on Friday, ending the state's long-standing threats to turn it over to a developer.
Under the agreement, the federal government will pay an estimated $62.5 million for the property, while privately raised funds will supply the rest.
Composed of a mix of trees, shrubs and sagebrush, the rolling land offers spectacular views of the iconic Teton Range and is a prime habitat for elk, moose and other animals. brown bear,
Gordon, a Republican, announced in a statement that he was approving the deal to add land to the national park because his office has ensured that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management manages a vast area of ​​southwestern Wyoming. There are not many restrictions in the scheme. on development, including oil and gas drilling — a condition created last winter by the state Legislature.
Still, Gordon criticized BLM's overall plan for the arid, mineral-rich area 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Grand Teton, calling it “the Biden administration's isolated shot” at the state.
“I have been in touch with Wyoming's congressional delegation and potential members of the incoming Trump administration to discuss the ideas the Biden administration is pursuing for southwestern Wyoming,” Gordon said in the statement.
George Frey/Getty Images
Interior Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Long before the national park was established in 1929, Wyoming has owned the southeastern Jackson Hole property, which is surrounded by Grand Teton on three sides and the national forest on the fourth. It is the last and most valuable of the four state-owned parcels to be annexed. by the park in the last decade.
The federal government granted such land to many states, particularly in the West, to help raise funds for public education. Despite the parcels' location and astronomical value, they brought relatively little revenue to the state through grazing leases and other uses.
So over the years, governors have tried to induce federal officials to buy the lands by threatening to auction them off.
The Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners, made up of Gordon and the state's other four top state elected officials, voted 3-2 in November to move forward with the sale after debate over negotiating trades for federally owned mineral rights elsewhere in the state. Did.