Land Use Alert: Teton County, Wyoming

October 2018 Powersport News Advocates for Multi-Use of Public Lands

The largest loss of public land access for snowmobiles, mountain bikes, dirt bikes and any other form of responsible mechanized or motorized recreation in Teton County, WY, is up for a vote.

Teton County Commissioners are holding the final public hearing to vote on the land use designations of the Palisades and Shoal Creek WSAs. The Commissioners have taken the fate of the WPLI into their own hands and are voting on whether or not to create 173,000 new acres of Wilderness, make the Shoal Creak WSA Wilderness and keep the Palisades in a WSA. This proposal would end access to more than one-third of the remaining lands in Teton County open to snowmobiling, mountain biking and dirt biking. 

Highlights Of The New WPLI Proposal

  • Would result in the largest loss of Teton County multi-use land in 34 years and would shut out mechanized and motorized recreation on 173,000 acres.
  • Leaves the Palisades as a Wilderness Study Area, which keeps the door open for conservation groups to continue to sue the BTNF to push out user groups, such as snowmobiling and mountain biking.
  • Turns the Shoal Creek WSA into Wilderness, thus closing it to snowmobiling, dirt biking and mountain biking access.
  • Closes more than 100,000 acres of popular cross country snowmobile terrain in the Mt. Leidy area.
  • Creates in total 173,000 acres of new Wilderness in Teton County.
  • Leaves 71,000 acres in Wilderness Study Areas instead of trying to designate productive uses for these “temporary” designations, which have been in place for more than 34 years.  

AMPL needs your voice.  

E-mail the Teton County Commissioners and mark your calendars to show up on Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 9 a.m. in the County Commissioners Chambers at 200 S. Willow Street in Jackson, WY

Click this e-mail link commissioners@tetonwyo.org to e-mail the county commissioners, letting them know you are not in favor of this new proposal. Feel free to edit and add personal details about why multi-use access to these public lands means so much to you. Don't forget to sign your name.

Visit AMPL.community for more details.

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