Forest Service plans for housing construction (map) at the Putt-Putt trailhead threaten wildlife habitat and open spaces that make Jackson Hole the unique alpine haven we love.
Funding for this housing sprawl comes from auctioning high-dollar Forest Service real estate on North Cache for commercial development where there is plenty of land for more employee housing–without disturbing wildlife and destroying open space.
Please learn the facts and join us to help save a piece of our Town’s most cherished open space. We will use this site to update you on the happenings affect the future of the Putt-Putt trail area, so tune in here and stay informed.
Well done, I will be happy to help in any way I can.
The plan to build a substantial housing development in existing National Forest is reckless and arrogant. It is a sad day indeed when our National Forest Service and other local/regional leaders seek profit and/or glory in real estate projects and questionable arrangements with Jackson’s elected leaders who seem primarily dedicated to urbanization and transforming the Town of Jackson into “Jackson City”. East Jackson is very small and already far too dense: the addition of dozens of homes will lead to parking problems, traffic congestion, and overcrowding on the roads and on Putt-Putt and other trails in and around the forest and Wilderness. Their plan is to build in the National Forest, but when and where will this ceaseless push for more housing developments end? The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is unique in the world and any development should be very carefully planned and executed. It is particularly disheartening that the Forest Service is using an unpopular and discontinued President Bush-era policy to exploit prime National Forest lands and leading an initiative that will degrade the Putt-Putt trail walking-cycling-running-riding experience permanently and result in folks beginning and ending their outing through yet another dense new East Jackson housing project. It would be admirable if Kniffy Hamilton would instead seek Federal support from her superiors and lead an initiative to increase the deplorably small housing allowance given to Forest Service employees who work hard to protect and maintain the Bridger-Teton Forest and ecosystem, yet struggle to eke out an existence in one of the wealthiest and most expensive counties in the US. This increased pay would allow Forest Service employees a means to afford adequate and available housing here in Teton County and protect the National Forest and we citizens who live near it from the adverse impact of superfluous and haphazard development.
I agree. This housing constrution by the Forest Service is bad for the Town and County. It more than doubles the existing development footprint, ignores significant environmental impacts, lacks any objective data as justification, and creates unnecessary sprawl. It flies in the face of well-established community values for preservation of open spaces and respect for wildlife habitat. Ironically, the Forest Service has other viable alternatives to meet its housing needs with virtually no environmental and community impacts.
how sad. ill help with protection too. i love my home to not be destroyed.
Bridger-Teton Forest Supervisor Kniffy Hamilton’s arguments for sale of National Forest land at the North Cache street Administrative site and further housing development on Nelson Drive are at best unconvincing, and at worst disingenuous . She notes in her Guest Shot in last week’s News & Guide that the land sale and development would have to meet her stringent criteria, or would not proceed. Yet the (faulty) Environmental Assessment which was completed on the proposed sale and projects do not even contain a “no action alternative” for the land sale or development !
The Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act of (FSFREA) of 2002 , which Ms. Hamilton references, and which she would use to sell our Forest land on North Cache street to the highest bidder, also makes very clear that exclusions from land sale or conveyance are warranted when those sales are not in the public interest (FSFREA Section 503.d.3.A/B/C).
While I fully understand, as do many other residents, the need for facility and housing upgrades, we also see housing opportunities that currently exist in Jackson, not mentioned by Ms. Hamilton to date, as a possible alternative to new development. We also see our land on North Cache as a precious commodity, that once sold to commercial development, as is her plan, would be lost forever as a possible site for Forest Service housing, Supervisor’s Office expansion, District Office expansion, Fire cache, or Teton County Search and Rescue cache. Once sold to the highest bidder, our land is gone.
I have, throughout this process, been sadly disenchanted with the lack of public communication, and honesty, that the Forest has shown to us, as a community, about plans for our public lands. We deserve a more honest discussion, and more honest involvement in this critical decision.
Sincerely,
Chuck Harris
Bridger-Teton Betrayal
Does anyone but me feel betrayed by our local Bridger-Teton National Forest Service which plans to sell 11 prime acres at North Cache to fund their new facilities? The problem is the Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act (FSFREA). Passed in 2002 & 2005, it allows public land donated to the Forest Service to be sold privately to the highest bidder. Profits of the sale are then used for “maintenance improvements” for their administrative buildings with very few guidelines. If we allow public land to be used as a commodity, then we have lost the basic concept of preserving public lands.
While the legal aspects of this Act are documented, where is the moral compass of our local Forest Service? Ms. Hamilton states that “sale of land is appropriate and necessary if we are to replace the facilities”. My business experience tells me long range budget planning for replacement of facilities is appropriate and necessary. Selling assets to pay for short term expenses is not good business practice.
In a letter written by Mayor Barron on November 11, 2009, the council pledged unanimous “support to identify a funding source other than the sale of public lands” to accomplish these goals. What better endorsement of an entire town could an agency receive? Our priorities in Jackson remain strong with commitments to our open spaces and wildlife. For the Forest Service to counter those objectives is beyond betrayal. How many of us have made donations to the park throughout the years, only now to be told by Ms. Hamilton that she is the “decider” in this process, dismissing town’s leadership and community support. Community support helped fund the new Bridger-Teton visitor center, bike paths and bear boxes of late. Where is the loyalty from Bridger-Teton to its neighbors?
It is astounding that while the P & Z committees and Commissioners spend countless hours struggling to revise the Comp Plan in town’s best interests to uphold open space, Bridger-Teton Forest Service plans to sell our public lands to fund their needs with impunity. This moral compass needs a major Realignment.
Linda Aurelio
We, the tax payers, own 11 acres on North Cache Street. The Nat’l Forest Service manages it for us. It is about to go on the real estate market for sale to the highest bidder. The hopeful estimate is 30 million $$$$. (Holy sh#t Sherlock)
The Forest Service will take that money; build a new administration building up Cache Creek (we have 8 acres there) along with employee housing. They will put their fire station and more employee housing at the end of the Fall Creek elk refuge feed grounds (Now that’s handy).
I fear this is a Forest Service “BAIL OUT”. Let’s not fix it. Let’s just sell the publics’ land and throw money at the problem. Perhaps there will even be bonuses. Let’s not clean up our crap and tuck it in. Let’s spread it all over the valley.
I’m confused. When I went to the Forest Service web sight their motto stated:
-Advocate a conservation ethic
-Listen to people and respond to their needs
-Protect and manage Nat’l Forest and Grasslands
-Teach stewardship and quality land management
fs.fed.us/aboutus/mission.shtml (I kid you not)
Eleven acres on North Cache Street is a sizable piece of ground. North Cache has its own wet lands but it is no longer in the NRO, not in a migration corridor, and wildlife winter range is the Elk Refuge across the fence. Do you realize the amount of employee housing you can put on 11 acres of land or how many forest service trucks and fire fighting equipment you can store?
Capital improvement funds (CID), come down the Forest service pipeline on an erratically regular bases. What in the hell have they been doing with that money for 40 years?
This equates to selling my house because my daughter won’t clean her room.
Cindy Hill Stone