Gov. Mark Gordon certified Friday that key conditions have been met for the sale of the Kelly Parcel to the National Park Service for inclusion into Grand Teton National Park, clearing the final significant hurdle to the long-awaited transaction.
Authorizing the sale last winter, the Wyoming Legislature added some contingencies related to the Bureau of Land Management’s just-finalized resource management plan for its Rock Spring Field Office. Late on Friday, the governor — who’d already signed the sales agreement for the state-owned 640 acres — announced that conditions related to the southwest Wyoming plan have been met.
“With the Governor’s certification and the authorization from the Board of Land Commissioners complete, the Kelly Parcel transaction with the National Park Service may now be finalized,” a statement from the governor’s office said.
Wyoming, the federal government and a host of conservation non-profit stakeholders have been working on the Teton County land transaction for nearly 15 years, though efforts have stalled out and taken unpopular turns — including a proposed auction that fizzled in 2023. Ultimately the state and federal government agreed to a $100 million sale. Some $62 million of the funding is coming from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, while the balance is being fundraised by the Grand Teton National Park Foundation.
Kelly Parcel sale conditions related to BLM’s Rock Springs plan are wonky. To meet the terms written into Wyoming’s 2024 budget bill, the federal government couldn’t select certain actions related to rights-of-way and fluid mineral leasing in the plan’s record of decision.
A Gordon letter signed on Friday certifies that the BLM met those terms. Still, the governor made it clear in his correspondence that he remains dissatisfied with where the BLM ended up with its plan for 3.6 million acres of southwest Wyoming.
“I always expected to have to litigate the Biden Administration’s parting shot at the good people of Wyoming and I have instructed the Attorney General to pursue every legal remedy,” Gordon said in a statement. “In addition, I have been in contact with Wyoming’s Congressional delegation and potential members of the incoming Trump Administration to fix the mess an ideological Biden Administration is leaving for southwestern Wyoming.”
As of Friday, a warranty deed for the Kelly Parcel sale had not been recorded with the Teton County Clerk’s Office. WyoFile’s efforts to ascertain the expected closing date were not immediately successful.
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