A Campaign to Support Wildlife & Wild Places
In memory of Addie & Ted Donnan: We are naming this key staff position in honor of Addie and Ted’s tireless dedication toward conservation. Addie and Ted spent years supporting the Alliance and other organizations with their time, resources, and energy. The Donnan Conservation Program Manager will work on many of the same issues they worked on and will build on the foundation Addie and Ted started.
What we are asking: The goal of this campaign is to raise three years of committed funding ($100,000 per year for a total of $300,000), to cover the staffing, program and organizational costs for our wildlife / wildlands work. This funding will permit us to hire a Conservation Program Manager with appropriate scientific credentials to help us advocate for wildlife and wildlands protections in and around Teton County.
What we will do with this support: Our Conservation Program Manager will be the voice of the Alliance in town, county, and state decisions about wildlife and wild places. Since last fall, we have not had a person in this seat – but this work is two-thirds of our mission. If we are successful in hiring a highly-trained candidate, we expect them to be a central voice in the community on all issues related to wildlife and wild places.
Examples include the impending Bridger-Teton Forest plan revision, the impact of heli tours on our wildlife populations, the protection of migration corridors and the successful implementation of wildlife crossings in the county.
Donate Now & please consider making this an annual pledge.
Who we are: The Alliance has protected the wildlife, wild places, and community character of Jackson Hole for 40 years. Our founding members got together in 1979 to adopt the county’s first comprehensive land-use plan and to fight harmful development ideas on private land. Over the years, we have fought off threats to our public lands like oil & gas wells up Cache and Little Granite Creeks and a dam that would have flooded Oxbow Bend. And we have been the local watchdog for effective and science-based wildlife management for decades.
40 years ago, we were the only local conservation organization in Jackson Hole. Now, dozens of conservation organizations work on protecting our ecosystem. What makes us different? We are the local, grassroots, advocacy group – and we are effective. We regularly appear at town council and county commission meetings to advocate for wildlife and wild places. We bring people out to meetings – not just the “usual suspects” but new people and young people. Our elected representatives know that we and our many members are watching. And we are proactive. With our partners, we led the grassroots campaign for wildlife crossings, directly contacting 1100 voters, and secured a 79% yes vote on the $10M SPET measure in November 2019.
Our current projects include:
- Wildlife crossings: We just finished a successful campaign to raise $10M for wildlife crossings in our county through the SPET tax. We’ll be working closely with the county to make sure the crossings are done well, and to put short-term solutions in place to protect wildlife between now and the time the crossings are in place. The first crossings will be at the intersection of Highways 22 and 390.
- Snow King: The developers at Snow King want to expand their footprint by 290 acres, which would have a significant negative impact on the mule deer and elk habitat in Leeks Canyon, and on the northern goshawk nesting pair on the front side. We’re rallying other conservationists to speak up for our local wildlife at town council and county commission meetings and to the Forest Service.
- Land use regulations: We have been helping our elected representatives design comprehensive land use regulations to protect our local ecosystem for 40 years. Two current topics are water quality and bear-proof trashcans.
- Bridger Teton Forest Plan revision: The Bridger Teton Forest use plan is coming up for revision in the next 12-24 months. We are working with partners to win a permanent ban on oil, gas, and hard rock development, commercial timber harvesting, and new roads in these public lands.
- Heli No: We are fighting a new proposal for helicopter tours out of the Jackson Hole Airport that would have a detrimental impact on our wildlife.
- Don’t Poach the Powder: We have a long-standing program to educate recreationists on how to protect wildlife in winter. Recreationists in other communities have had a hugely detrimental impact on local wildlife and we are trying to avoid making the same mistakes here.
- Wildlife management legal action: We work with Earth Justice and partners to litigate when necessary to protect our wildlife and wildlands.
Why we’re asking for support now: Given the importance of this work, as we hire a new Conservation Program Manager, we want to ensure that we can attract high-level candidates with appropriate scientific credentials to a sustainable position with very competitive compensation. We must secure multi-year funding, so we can assure our top candidate that they are taking a stable position at a healthy organization.
Why you should make a pledge today: If you don’t act to protect our wildlife and wild places, who will? We live in a very rare intact ecosystem and we all experience the magic of that every day. The forces of development in our county are relentless. History shows that if we don’t provide a strong voice for protecting the balance between development and wildlife, the nearly irresistible urge toward development will prevail and our wildlife will disappear. We at the Conservation Alliance have the time and energy to fight for our wildlife and wild places, but we need resources to be effective against the well-funded advocates of unplanned development.
Would you consider making a three-year pledge today?
Thank you so much for your support, and please don’t hesitate to call me or set up a time for us to discuss this in person.
Sincerely,
Skye Schell
Executive Director
MANY THANKS TO OUR HOST COMMITTEE:
Joe Albright
Jean Anderson
Kirk & Peggy Davenport
Scott & Petria Fossel
David & Leslye Hardie
Beedee Ladd
Brad & Kristi Nielson
Katrina Ryan
Dave & Kate Sollitt
Amy & Steve Unfried