Jackson Hole's success is about more than the Tetons, just as Big Sky is about more than the allure of Lone Mountain. Healthy, inspiring environments attract smart creative people. The dynamic communities they build are better able to withstand booms and busts. Jackson Hole holds lessons for the rest of the state as half of the counties are losing population. PHOTO BY TODD WILKINSON
It’s soul-searching time in Wyoming, or at least it ought to
be.
Once again, elected officials are pondering what to do next
after squandering yet another natural resource boom—coal—that policy makers
cockily vowed could never happen again.
Wyoming has a rainy-day fund, estimated to be about $1.6
billion, amassed from mineral taxes and investments but the coal industry is
reeling. Ongoing budget shortfalls are expected as the fortunes of coal tumble
and if a national recession hits hard it may be a devastating blow.
With the state at another painful crossroad, has the moment
arrived when Gov. Mark Gordon and his lieutenants might objectively consider
why Jackson Hole thrives as an enigma compared to the rest of the state where
markedly different cultural attitudes prevail?
Gordon is smart. Being well educated and from Buffalo, he
understands keenly the shortsightedness that has dominated the state
legislature for decades—the false belief that Wyoming can somehow buck trends
shaping the rest of the world.
As a whole, Wyoming is hemorrhaging people while Jackson
Hole is swelling with mobile, skilled individuals who enthusiastically want to
be there. The attraction involves more than the allure of the Tetons.
Wyoming is the only state in the Rockies, in fact,
experiencing net out-migration. Half of Wyoming’s counties, not just those with
coal mines and oil and gas fields, lost population. Teton County, meanwhile, is
coping with a number of growth-related challenges.
In most of Wyoming, Sagebrush Rebels regard federal land
ownership as an economic liability but in Teton County, with 97 percent of its
area being public, its presence is a potent engine for job creation and
attracting creative entrepreneurs crucial to having a dynamic 21st
century economy.
In most of Wyoming, the shriller the right-of-center
rhetoric the better the chances a candidate has of getting elected, while in
Jackson Hole vocally defending President Trump’s controversial behavior, tweets
and actions would get you soundly defeated. Trump carried Wyoming with 67.4
percent of the vote statewide in 2016; in Teton County he notched just 30.6
percent.
In most of Wyoming, Jackson Hole is viewed as a province
filled with “socialists” and lefty “communist snowflakes.” In the Tetons
affordable housing, bike paths, capital facilities supported by taxing visitors
and even planning and zoning regulations are embraced as necessary public goods
and those social amenities connote a community that is forward leaning, not
backward looking.
In most of Wyoming, the science related to climate change is
dismissed scornfully by legislators yet in Jackson Hole it would be impossible
to get elected by campaigning as an overt climate change denier; in fact, a
Teton County commissioner who is a trained geologist authored a report on the
economic and ecological impacts of climate change to Jackson Hole.
If you remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that members of
the school board in Cody, affiliated with the local Tea Party, claimed readings
in established textbooks referencing climate change were based on “junk
science” and represented attempts to brainwash kids with radical left-wing
propaganda.
In most of Wyoming, wildlife carnivores such as grizzlies
and wolves are treated with hatred, the Endangered Species Act is condemned and
environmentalists are vilified as enemies, yet nature tourism in Yellowstone
and Grand Teton generates $1.3 billion annually in economic activity and creates
thousands of jobs. Two of the top attractions in those parks: bears and lobos.
In most of Wyoming, there is delight when U.S. Rep. Liz
Cheney appears on Fox News yet in Teton County she is too afraid to hold a
press conference with local media whom she knows would ask her tough questions.
Despite having a home in Wilson, Cheney knows that were it left to Teton County
voters to decide her political fate, she’d never be elected to Congress.
In most of Wyoming, there’s a cultural mindset that condones
killing wolves and coyotes by any means, any time of day, any day of the year,
including the running down of coyotes with snowmobiles for sport, while in
Teton County elected officials are appalled by its violation of professional
wildlife management standards.
In most of Wyoming, the spread of chronic wasting disease is
treated with almost indifference compared to action plans being developed in
other states yet in Teton County the controversial practice of artificially
feeding elk triggering a potential CWD outbreak is a huge worry.
In most of Wyoming, anti-immigrant sentiments in league with
President Trump view those coming across the southern U.S. border with Mexico
as threats to the American way, while in Jackson Hole the Latino community is
the heart and soul of the local service economy and important to the local
social fabric.
Why is Teton County prospering? Why do outsiders, including
right-wing billionaires, want to move there? What lessons does Jackson Hole hold
for a state not keeping pace with its other neighbors in the Rockies?
These are questions Gov. Gordon ought to be talking about
honestly and openly but would voters in most of Wyoming punish him at the polls
for doing it?
Todd Wilkinson is the founder of Bozeman-based “Mountain Journal” and is a correspondent for “National Geographic.” He’s also the author of “Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek” about famous Jackson Hole grizzly bear 399, which is available at mangelsen.com/grizzly.
"Lessons Learned from my Disability during the COVID World"
Featuring a virtual discussion with Rob Balucas, Lane Lamoreaux, and Seth Dahl. Screening of Seth Dahl's trailer to his film,
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“Lessons Learned from my Disability during the COVID World”
Featuring a virtual discussion with Rob Balucas, Lane Lamoreaux, and Seth Dahl. Screening of Seth Dahl’s trailer to his film, “Flowing Air.”
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