Jackson Hole Underground

The robins are getting fat on drowned earthworms, and the fragrance of chokecherry and crabapple blossoms fills the air. On East Gros Ventre Butte, it’s as if someone spilled streaks of yellow paint down every nook and gully, the bunches of balsam root are so abundant.

Looking out the window in mid-June and seeing this view is more than one can bear. We’re only a week away from summer, and yet we never really had any spring.

This valley is about to explode — with wildflowers, runoff, and mosquitoes. A little sunshine, and the frenzy will be on for the longest days of the year.

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As town gears up for the Jackson Hole Film Festival, tonight there will be a showing of an off-festival movie that revs the debate over snowmobiles into a full-throttle indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration’s approach to government.

“A Snowmobile for George” is the story of California filmmaker Todd Darling’s ride into the exhaust cloud of deregulation. Following his own curiosity after buying a sled, Darling races from the controversy over allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone to runaway coal-bed methane drilling in the Powder River Basin to a hideous die-off of salmon on the Klamath River.

The 96-minute film will screen at 6:30 p.m. at the Jackson campus of Teton Science Schools, off Highway 22. The event is being sponsored by the Western Organization of Research Councils, an association that represents ranchers and other landowners on issues of water, air and soil quality. On hand will be George Smith, a cowboy poet from Sheridan.

I have returned to river guiding on my first and favorite stretch of the Snake in Grand Teton National Park. There are many reasons for this, chief among them a desire to spend more time outside and less staring at a computer, while getting paid for it.

Late last week, a call came over the radio from two guides in front that I should hug a certain bank a few miles downstream of Deadman’s Bar. There was a carcass I might want to have a look at, the guides said.

So I rowed my boat, slowly rounding a curve. I stood on the oar frame to get a better look, and as ten expectant tourists arched their necks, we came in sight of … a dead wolf.

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(Updated 5/20 with slide show and note about Grizzly No. 399)

Photos © 2008 by Sue Cedarholm. Click to enlarge.

At last, Mother Nature flipped the switch, and Jackson Hole was thrown from winter into the glory of summer.

There was no better display of the exuberance this weekend than the foxes denning in the Karns Meadow along Flat Creek in downtown Jackson.

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Last week’s enactment by the Teton County commissioners of a moratorium on large developments effectively killed the proposal for Teton Meadows Ranch, which even the staunchest supporters admitted was less than ideal. So what’s the next step?

Come up with a better plan. Most disconcerting about the fight over Teton Meadows was the backlash against affordable housing in general. Now with the focus on drafting a new Comprehensive Plan for the town and county, the naysayers will be busy at the keyboard, trying to insert their language into the document.

For affordable housing advocates, it’s easy to be discouraged by the furor over Teton Meadows. But it’s more essential than ever to stay involved in the process. Tonight there’s a meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Jackson campus of the Teton Science Schools (on Highway 22) where consultants will present scenarios for future development.

Showing up to these meetings and making your presence felt sends a message that the new plan won’t be shaped by a few. The easiest way to give input is to visit the Web site JacksonTetonPlan.com, where all documents are posted and comments will be accepted throughout the summer.

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