Let’s sustain healthy wildlife populations through the neighborhood plan for Northern South Park.
We are a community of people who love to call wild places home – and wildlife our neighbors. As we expand into open space to house essential workers, we run the risk of creating another suburban maze that makes it difficult for wildlife to get where they need to go.
Healthy, resilient wildlife populations depend on connected habitat, and one day, all of South Park could be homes. We must proactively link wildlife habitat now, as called for in the Teton County Wildlife Crossings Master Plan, before we lose this opportunity.
The data shows that:
- Wildlife use the Snake River riparian corridor
- Wildlife also use the back side of Snow King, in Leeks Canyon and Josie’s Ridge
- And between them, S Highway 89 is a wildlife-vehicle collision “hotspot” presenting the highest wildlife fatality rates in our county.
We can link this habitat and sustain healthy wildlife populations by creating a wildlife corridor through Central South Park to the planned crossing over Highway 89.
Northern South Park is about who we are as a community, and we have a choice. Are we a community that wants to live next to abundant, protected wildlife? Join us if you’d like to help us create space for people and for wildlife, and be ready for the county’s next workshop on Northern South Park in June.
