In 2024, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah pulled off a true marvel in our modern, echo-chambered, dysfunctional national political arena: He united voters from across the political spectrum on a single issue! Ranchers, climbers, hunters, environmentalists and others formed a brick wall of bipartisan oppo sition to Lee’s proposal to sell off millions of acres of public lands, even though he had claimed it would provide desperately needed affordable housing in the West. The exercise made clear that our public land, and how it is used, is a sacred issue above the mundanity of the always-expanding human need to build more.  Yet, in Teton County, a historic home of ardent conservation leaders and wildlife activists, nicknamed the “cradle of conservation,” a project proposed at the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Nelson Drive Trailhead is being presented to the watching nation: a blueprint for how to develop public lands for private sector housing. And no, Nelson Drive is not the same as Lee’s sell-off proposal, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good direction for public land or affordable housing. Forest Service land deemed “administrative” is traditionally where employees are housed. But the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust’s 36-unit, 7.5-acre Nelson Drive vision has just 13 units for public land managers and 23 units for non-federal and private sector workers, all overseen and managed by the Community Housing Trust under an unprecedented issuance of Special Use Permit. In Teton County, in Wyoming, and across the West, this should not be welcomed as a new normal. Nor should it be applauded as outside-the-box thinking. Creeping onto public land for private housing is not ingenious — it’s lazy.  The Housing Trust has completed valuable housing projects in Teton County in the past. Parts of this plan, too, are admirable and forward-thinking. Let’s absolutely raise and use philanthropic money from donors large and small to help our beleaguered federal and state public land managers house those who care for and protect the lands, waters and wildlife that enrich our lives.   By promoting the contentious concept of privately employed workers on public land in exchange for building needed federal housing, this small project misses the chance to set a better, more unifying precedent for Teton County and beyond. If the future residents of Nelson Drive were limited to federal workers, Teton County could avoid the uproar over public land uses, inviting lawsuits, roiling neighbors and forcing people to choose between housing or public land values.  Importantly, the Bridger-Teton has stated it needs more than 13 units. What is the point of making a mess of the boundaries of public land uses when there are so many federal workers and public sector employees in need of housing? This should be the opportunity to rally around them in solidarity and put our dollars where our values are. If this project and its funding were to show, rather than say, how much we value our land and wildlife managers, that is a dramatically more attractive precedent than blurring the lines of public land use and profit. Yet the public was never given that chance. Particularly galling is that these plans were made, and financing developed to build on publicly owned lands, with no public input and no transparency. No public philanthropic ask was made to build all the homes the Forest Service needed. As presented, it’s a needless insertion of private workers onto the Bridger-Teton National Forest. In places like Teton County, critical thinking and the sense of responsibility to public land and wild places are meeting instant death at the mere mention of affordable housing.  A need for affordable housing does not mean every proposal, or every part of a proposal, should see the light of day. Yet the Community Housing Trust has stated this public land project is going to happen and move forward as designed — meaning anyone could live there — without discussion, and with or without public input, support or money. That’s nice.  This was not the only way to help the Bridger-Teton get the housing it needs, or unite communities in support of land managers. Lee and his allies are watching with a smile, and so are future actors across the American West, eager to get a Special Use Permit for “free land.” A hotel owner, a ski resort manager, or whoever wants public land for employee housing could look to a struggling land manager and offer a minority share of the units for agency employees. Instead of upholding western Wyoming’s legacy of stewardship, foresight, and most importantly, restraint, this may just undermine it in front of the whole nation. The post Teton County housing proposal could set precedent for future public land grabs appeared first on WyoFile . ...read more read less