Bradly J. Boner
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Hole Scenic Area,” which would have armed a working group of federal, state and local officials with $200 million — then an incredible sum — to preserve working ranchland and other open spaces in perpetuity through scenic easements. As ambitious as it was, the plan almost materialized. “It passed the House and it would have passed the Senate,” Hocker said, “but [U.S. Sen.] Cliff Hansen blocked it.” The rise and fall of the Jackson Hole Scenic Area proposal speaks to the community’s steadfast devotion to maintaining its unique character and rural nature. Just a few years before the scenic bill flopped, Grand Teton National Park had studied an expansion of its boundaries for the same reason. And very shortly after, in 1980, the Jackson Hole Land Trust formed. Jean Hocker — Phil’s wife — was a co-founder. “We found out that the land trust model was working in some other places,” Jean Hocker said, “and having tried and failed to get federal legislation and federal funding, we thought this would be the best way to keep some of the land undeveloped and give the ranchers other choices.” Fast forward 36 years and the trust, now led by Laurie Andrews, has protected more than 23,000 acres in Teton County. That’s nearly a third of the relatively scant private land tucked within the county’s nearly 2.7 million acres, which is 97.2 percent publicly owned. The secured properties create a patchwork of protection along 30
Headwaters | 2016 Edition
the Snake River plain. Bill and Story Resor stand on While they’re most a piece of their conservation concentrated in central property just south of Jackson Jackson Hole, the Hole Mountain Resort. The Resor parcels also extend family — which owns the largest down to Hoback estate of land in Jackson Hole Junction, up the Gros — has placed 40 percent of its Ventre River corridor properties under protection with and into the Buffalo the Jackson Hole Land Trust, Valley. which Story co-founded in 1980. Efforts to protect the historic viewscapes aren’t slowing. Last year the Land Trust secured 388 acres — more than half a square-mile of land — primarily on the Mead Ranch up Spring Gulch Road. Andrews said she feels strongly that the community prioritizes protecting its “character-defining” landscapes. Imagine, she said, a subdivision at the Hardeman Meadows just outside of Wilson. “Would that change this place as we know it?” Andrews asked. “Dramatically.” The successes of the trust and other land conservers are due in large part to the willingness of Jackson Hole’s land-rich residents to waive the right to develop their land. Bill Resor, whose wife Story Clark co-founded the trust with Hocker, is in charge of an estate that started out as the 400-acre Snake River Ranch in the early 1930s. Today, the Resors are the largest landowning family in the valley and have made significant strides toward forever preserving their property’s open spaces. See Development on 31