By Jim Stanford on November 30, 2009
The Forest Service has irritated neighbors, cyclists and public lands watchdogs.
Today is the deadline to comment on the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s boondoggle proposal to sell off public land on North Cache and build new offices and employee housing elsewhere.
Forest managers seek to develop public land at the popular Putt-Putt Trailhead at the end of East Hansen Avenue and Nelson Drive. The preferred alternative calls for bulldozing the trail and erecting 18 homes. The agency would pay for the development by selling 11 acres on North Cache — site of the existing forest headquarters — for what is likely to be a fraction of its pre-recession value.
E-mail comments must be submitted in rich text format (.rtf) or Word (.doc) to comments-intermtn-bridger-teton@fs.fed.us. The subject line should specify “Conveyance Project.”
As detailed here, this process has been a farce since journalists first exposed it.
A quick recap: The idea was born of desperation and made possible by Bush-era legislation allowing the sale of public lands. Discussions with an IMAX developer set the wheels in motion in Jackson, and the forest conducted a sham public process well after deciding to sell the property, which sits at the northern gateway to downtown and – prior to the bottom dropping out of the market – was considered a prime parcel of real estate worth perhaps $50 million.
The Forest Service has advanced the proposal over the objections of its own staff. The environmental assessment, for instance, points out that moving the firefighting facilities 15 miles south (to the Cottonwood Work Site) would delay response times.
A citizens’ group calling itself Protect the Putt Putt has mobilized to stop the sale. Most likely, the proposed developments will face lawsuits if the Forest Service decides to push ahead.
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• Forest Service to give bailout to distressed realtors (March 6, 2009)
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