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Grand Teton Land Swap Proposal Moves Forward

Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park

The Wyoming House of Representatives gave initial approval to a bill that would allow the state to sell two 640-acre parcels of state trust land located inside Grand Teton National Park to the federal government. 

The legislature is looking for 92 million dollars for the land.  Conservation groups and National Park officials would like the land protected, but Evansville Republican Kendell Kroeker suggested the land be sold at an auction. 

Jackson Representative Ruth Ann Petroff said then they’d risk having private development on the land. Speaker of the House Kermit Brown said lawmakers need to be smarter than that.

“If you want to see the greatest amount of political scorn rain down on this state then you’ve ever seen,  just put this in an auction situation where the general public has a chance to buy it without being reasonable about it. We’d absolutely be the scorn of this nation and we’d never recover from it.”
 
Lawmakers say they’d like the federal government to purchase the two parcels at once. The bill will be debated two more times.
 

Bob Beck retired from Wyoming Public Media after serving as News Director of Wyoming Public Radio for 34 years. During his time as News Director WPR has won over 100 national, regional and state news awards.
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