For Sale: Part of Grand Teton National Park. Majestic views of the Teton Range. Prime location for luxury resort, home development. Pristine habitat for moose, elk, wolves, grizzlies.
Price: US$125 million. Call: Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal.
Wyoming is trying to force the US Department of the Interior to trade land, minerals or mineral royalties for 552 hectares it owns within the majestic park. If the foot-dragging feds don’t agree to a deal — soon — Freudenthal threatens to put a For Sale sign on the property.
Wyoming has owned the land since statehood in 1890, when the federal government set aside land in new Western states to be mined, logged or leased to raise money for public education. Wyoming kept its so-called “school sections” after Grand Teton National Park was established in 1950.
The state has tried for a decade to negotiate some kind of trade.
Saying that his patience is running out, Freudenthal, a Democrat, sent an ultimatum recently to park superintendent Mary Gibson Scott.
“I think he wants to pound the [for sale] sign in himself,” said Ed Grant, director of the Office of State Lands and Investments.
Wyoming gets just US$3,000 a year from the land by leasing it for cattle grazing. Sold with the proceeds invested at 3 percent, the land easily could bring in US$3.75 million a year.
Wyoming’s Constitution requires state officials to manage state lands for maximum profit. Their oaths of office require them to act.
“If it’s to recreate on, or if it’s a new ski lodge, highest and best use,” said Susan Child, deputy director of the state lands office. “It’s obviously not grazing.”
Even in pro-development Wyoming, however, selling off land in a national park isn’t a popular idea. Some are protesting already.
However, Freudenthal, who has a long history of run-ins with the Interior Department over endangered species and snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, isn’t stepping on any toes he hasn’t smashed already. What’s more, he’s wrapping up his second term and will leave office next year. He’s all but enshrined as one of the most popular governors in Wyoming history.
“We’re going to continue to push on it,” Freudenthal said. “Somehow we’ve got to get some attention.”
He certainly grabbed the park’s.
“These are wildlife-rich habitats completely surrounded by pristine park land,” park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said. “For obvious reasons, Grand Teton National Park would be very, very concerned and disappointed if these lands were sold for development.”
A deal wouldn’t be unprecedented: Utah in 1999 worked out an elaborate swap involving nearly 1,550km² of state land within several national parks, monuments and recreation areas. The state got US$50 million plus 620km² of federal land in return.
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ¥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000