Sell Me Your Tetons

A piece of Yellowstone's southern neighbor, Grand Teton National Park, may soon be up for sale. Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal is considering selling two square miles within the park that are dubbed "school sections"—land the state actually owns and is supposed to use to raise money for schools. According to some reports, the land is worth over $100 million but the state receives only $3,000 per year from the land by leasing it for cattle grazing. The sale idea is intended to encourage the federal government to pick up the pace on years-long negotiations involving trading the state land for nearby federal land or land rights that would be used to better compensate Wyoming's school system. Freudenthal met with BLM Director Bob Abbey in July about the matter. "I think he is committed to trying to make progress on these leasing questions and acknowledged that they’ve kind of been held up for awhile," said Freudenthal in a July 15 press conference. "He’s going to try to see if we can move things forward."