The sale of the 640-acre Kelly Parcel in Teton County to the federal government is historic for a number of reasons, including its sheer size and the incredibly intricate dealmaking that had to take place to get it done.
Former Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Rob Wallace told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that it’s one of the largest land buys ever made by the federal government out of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) in its nearly 60-year history. Wallace was one of the major figures in helping get the sale across the finish line.
“It was a very gratifying project to be a part of,” Wallace said. “It was a historic win for Grand Teton, and a historic win for wildlife.”
Chip Jenkins, Grand Teton National Park superintendent, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the reason the federal government prioritized the sale was because of the significance it holds for wildlife and the environment. Next to Grand Teton, it also makes sense to include the pristine tract of land it into the park.
In addition to its scenic beauty, the Kelly Parcel serves as an important corridor for migrating wildlife like deer, elk and antelope, the starting point for the Path of the Pronghorn — the longest land migration in the lower 48 states.
“Preserving the Kelly Parcel, preventing it from being developed, helps not only Grand Teton National Park, but it helps those people that love wildlife elsewhere in Wyoming,” Jenkins said.
At 7 a.m. Monday, the $100 million for the purchase of the iconic piece of state land that will be incorporated into Grand Teton National Park was wired to Wyoming through the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, officially completing the last step of the land transfer that has been more than 20 years in the making.
Gov. Mark Gordon gave a final sign off on the agreement Friday, which he viewed as complying with the terms dictated by the state Legislature in regard to the BLM’s Resources Management Plan for Rock Springs.
How It Worked
The LWCF is a federal program that was established by Congress in 1965 to provide money and matching grants to federal, state and local governments for the acquisition of land and water, and easements on land and water, for the benefit of all Americans.
The LWCF was fully funded at around $900 million a year by the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020. Funding for this account comes from royalties derived from offshore oil and gas leases.
With the passage of the act, $62.4 million was apportioned to Grand Teton to buy the Kelly Parcel in the Department of Interior’s budget, making up more than half of the entire budget given to the National Parks Service from the LWCF. Jenkins said he and his staff are not aware of a land purchase of this magnitude ever being made before.
“The secretary of the interior has made the Kelly Parcel a priority,” Jenkins said.
The remaining sum of the purchase was paid by private philanthropy.
Continuing A Legacy
What to do about the Kelly Parcel has been a topic of discussion in Wyoming political circles since the late 1990s, and in many ways much longer.
Jenkins said when the park was founded in 1929, it was widely accepted that the hundreds of pieces of state and private parcels located within the park boundaries would be incorporated into Grand Teton someday. Jenkins said the Kelly Parcel purchase represents the last major piece of that puzzle.
“This is the last biggest piece of property that was not owned by the American people,” Jenkins said. “It is a continuation of the creation of the park over the last 95 years.”
John D. Rockefeller started buying private property for the park in 1924, eventually donating more than 30,000 acres for Grand Teton. Since the 1950s, Grand Teton has continued this trend, also purchasing land from private sellers for the park.
In 2010, a memorandum of understanding was signed by former Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the secretary ofthe Interior to lay out a process for which four state parcels located within Grand Teton would be sold to the park.
Jenkins said there was frustration expressed in the Wyoming Legislature at this time that the National Parks Service was not pursuing the purchase of these lands more quickly. The biggest hold up, he said, was the fact there wasn’t funding available.
The last of three purchases happened in 2016 when the Interior Department acquired the Antelope Flats parcel for Grand Teton for $46 million. Like the Kelly Parcel sale, from this total, half was paid for by private philanthropy.
Momentum Speeds Up
The Kelly Parcel was one of the hot-button topics of discussion during this year’s legislative session. The major push to sell the state land was so that a much larger sum of money could be generated from the land to support Wyoming’s schools than what it now produces in leasing revenue, which is less than $3,000 a year.
Jenkins said the Kelly Parcel negotiations ramped up significantly around 2020, frequently touring members of the Biden administration, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, around the parcel in 2023.
“We have been very active over the last four years, but particularly over the last two years in working with the secretary’s office and her staff, as well as the governor and his staff, and members of the Wyoming Legislature,” Jenkins said.
Few, if any, Wyoming people said they wanted the land sold to a private buyer, but some argued that the land should be sold for a much higher price than what was being discussed, traded for mineral leasing opportunities in other parts of the state, or continued to be managed by the state and not sold at all.
Pieces On The Chess Board
From those discussions, Grand Teton National Park Foundation President Leslie Mattson said she got word from legislative leaders that a deal could likely be struck for $100 million on the land purchase.
Despite “stomping her feet” and “yelling” against the proposal, Mattson said she knew it also probably represented the best possible outcome for the land purchase.
“It’s so significant for us to be able to go to our donors and say the feds are paying that whole piece, and we as contributors are helping get that finished,” she said. “It’s very motivating.”
Wallace and Jenkins spent a number of long days and late nights at the Capitol during the session, lobbying legislators to help them get the deal done. As part of the deal, hunting access and grazing leases will be continued on the parcel.
After the Legislature finished its work, over the next roughly six months, Mattson helped raise $37.6 million to help Grand Teton buy the land with assistance from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through Walmart’s Acres for America Program, and the Jackson Hole Land Trust.
“She’s one of the most amazing directors I’ve ever come across,” Wallace said of Mattson.
In November, the State Board of Land Commissioners approved the sale.
Jenkins said getting all of the pieces squared away represented a “once in a lifetime” effort “in getting all of those pieces in alignment at one time.”
He considers it one of the significant efforts of his career but said it was a team effort in getting it done that included valuable input from government officials but even more importantly thousands of Wyoming residents.
“What’s happened here with the Kelly Parcel, it’s been a very very large team that people have played their role appropriately,” he said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
