Protecting our open lands

By Susan Lykes

Susan Lykes

Floating the Teton River along private lands protected by the landowners in partnership with the Teton Regional Land Trust.

I recently returned from a national conference on land conservation. This year’s convocation was held in Portland, Oregon, and I was inspired by that city’s deep culture of local food, recycling, and conservation.

We in the Tetons are lucky to have expanding opportunities for eating local foods, and we owe a lot to the dedicated individuals who ensure we have opportunities to recycle so far from central facilities. But what we really have in spades is land conservation and a deep preservation ethic. Whether a family on a century farm or ranch, or someone new to the area, most of us have an abiding respect for open land and the people who work it.

We are also lucky to have strong and forward-thinking organizations that help protect private land around the Tetons. The Teton Regional Land Trust, Jackson Hole Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy work in Teton Valley and Jackson Hole; a little farther afield is the Green River Valley Land Trust in Pinedale.

Nationwide, land trusts have protected 37 million acres of private land, in perpetuity, at the behest of the landowners. Here in our neighborhood, over 30,000 acres have been protected in the valleys east and west of the Tetons, helping to safeguard our clean water, wildlife’s winter range, and the beautiful open vistas. Many thanks are owed to the landowners who choose to work with a land trust to keep their lands undeveloped.

A mark of the maturity and high standards of a land trust is accreditation with the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, which is an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance. The accreditation program was established only two years ago, and already TRLT, JHLT and GRVLT have been accredited. This is truly impressive, and hearty congratulations are in order for all three groups. (Focusing initially on local and state conservation groups, the Accreditation Commission has not yet begun taking applications from national groups such as The Nature Conservancy.)

To read about one of the Teton Regional Land Trust’s projects in Teton Valley, click here. And, if you’d like information on any of the land trusts mentioned here, go to: Teton Regional Land Trust , Jackson Hole Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, or Green River Valley Land Trust.

This page requires javascript. It seems that your browser does not have Javascript enabled. Please enable Javascript and press the Reload/Refresh button on your browser.

Add your comment:

About This Blog

Michael McCoy

Editor Michael McCoy is a native Wyomingite who, through no choice of his own, moved to Iowa (“the third greatest state in the nation,” he says) when he was only a few weeks old. After high school graduation, he beelined it back to the University of Wyoming, where he earned a degree in Anthropology and the nickname of “Mac.” In addition to his Teton-area editorial duties, Mac works for the Missoula, Montana-based Adventure Cycling Association and writes freelance articles and books about the outdoors. “But that’s enough about me,” he says. “This blog is about you. I will prime the pump with an entry now and then--but ultimately, we hope it will be our readers, both locals and out-of-staters, who keep the streams of conversation flowing.”

Contributing blogger Susan Traylor Lykes was born and raised in the Denver area, a third-generation Coloradan. She spent much of her childhood in the mountains, and took up fly fishing at the tender age of ten, wielding her grandfather’s old bamboo rod and Pflueger reel. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Susan earned a master's degree in Town Planning from the University of Montana. For the past decade, she has focused on nonprofit land conservation and land use, serving on the boards of the Land Trust Alliance, the Teton Regional Land Trust, and the Orton Family Foundation.
Susan and her husband, Mayo, call both sides of the Tetons home. They are enthusiastic travelers and outdoorsmen — hiking, skiing, fly fishing, and bird hunting.

Contributing blogger Jeanne Anderson is a Cheyenne native and graduate of the University of Wyoming who has spent the last 25 years as a writer, PR consultant, columnist, and editor. Her passions include hiking, cooking reading, traveling, community, and creativity (she’s in her third term on the Idaho Commission on the Arts). She credits her broad practical streak to her parents, who started the first travel agency in the Cowboy State—from them she learned “every bathroom in the world is down the hall and to the left.” Jeanne and her husband Peter started Dark Horse Books in Driggs in 1995; their two-year experiment lasted 14 years. Now out from behind the bookstore counter, she’s looking forward to many new adventures.