Conservation Planting Program
Teton Conservation District is offering matching grant funding for Teton County, Wyoming residents to support native vegetation and agriculture projects. Example projects could include:
- Native plant and pollinator gardens (up to $1,000)
- Greenhouses (up to $500)
- High tunnels for agricultural purposes (up to $5,000)
- Developing new or improving existing community gardens (up to $2,000)
- Conservation tillage and cover crop practices (up to $10,000)
Click here to learn more and apply for funding.
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Photos of native plants you could plant in your backyard this summer! Left: Scarlett Globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea) by Matt Lavin. Right: Colorado blue columbine (Aquilegia coerulea) by Andrey Zharkikh.
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Trout Friendly Landscaper & Business Certification
Join us for our annual Trout Friendly Landscaper Certification from 10:00 to 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 13th at Teton County Library. The workshop is FREE and open to anyone to attend. Experts will present on soil health, drought management, native plants, and more. The event will be followed by a light lunch at noon, offering a chance to chat with landscaping and water experts. Click here for more information and to download the event agenda.
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Why Should I Care About Winter Range?
As of April 5th this year, the Wyoming Game & Fish Department reported that 90% of tracked Wyoming Range mule deer fawns have succumbed to severe winter conditions. Average winterlong fawn mortality is closer to 25%. The lack of winter range is recognized as one of the most significant limiting factors to mule deer populations.
What is winter range? Winter range is the topography and habitat that mule deer require to survive deep snow, frigid temperatures, predation threats, and human-caused stress. The winter range we see animals using most frequently are the steep south-, east-, and west-facing buttes that receive enough sun and wind to keep snow depths low and natural high-fiber forage accessible.
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Morgan Graham, our GIS & Wildlife Specialist, has counted thousands of mule deer on winter range around the valley. The image above shows some of these observations on East Gros Ventre Butte above Broadway Avenue, symbolized by deer group size.
Mule deer rely on fat stores until May when the landscape begins to green up again. If they run out of fat stores, their body will shift to burning protein/muscle (not good). A dog chasing a deer through deep snow is a preventable tax on vital energy. Simply walking in deep snow requires roughly 6x more energy than on flat ground. What’s harder to reckon with are the cumulative impacts of more frequent alertness, standing, and avoidance in response to humans and pets.
You can help mule deer through the last leg of the winter marathon by observing seasonal wildlife closures, keeping your dog under control, and never feeding deer or other wildlife (a fed deer/moose/bear is a dead deer/moose/bear!).
Want to learn more about winter range? Read Morgan Graham’s recent post on our blog.
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Early Spring Watershed Update
Snow Water Equivalent for the Snake River Headwaters Basin
Early spring storms continue to build our snowpack. As of April 5, we are at 121% of normal snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Snake River Headwaters Basin. To put this another way, so far this winter we have 4.2 more inches of SWE in the basin than the 30-year median peak. We typically hit peak snowpack on April 11th. Find SWE information that is updated weekdays at this link. Find SWE information that is updated weekdays at this link.
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Snowpack in Town
If it seems like we have a lot more snow in town this year, that’s because we do! The Jackson, WY Climate Station, located within the Town of Jackson, has collected snow depth records going back to 1905, but a more consistent dataset exists from 1970 onwards. As of March 31st, we had more than four times the average snow depth in town for the period of record 1970-2022!
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Drought Outlook
Jackson Lake storage has increased from 16% to 24% since October. Palisades reservoir sits at 36% full. Despite the wet winter we’ve been having, drought is still a concern. It will take more than a few above-average winters to refill Jackson Lake.
- 0% of Teton County is experiencing Extreme Drought (D3) conditions
- 25.1% of Teton County is experiencing Severe Drought (D2) conditions
- 29.9% of Teton County is experiencing Moderate Drought (D1) conditions
- 41.5% of Teton County is experiencing Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions
- 3.5% of Teton County is not experiencing Drought conditions
If you are interested in receiving a watershed update by email twice a month, please reach out to David Lee at david@tetonconservation.org
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Minimizing Wildlife Conflict in Teton County
While people mean well, feeding wildlife—and ungulates in particular—does more harm than good. Click here learn more about why feeding wildlife is problematic.
Many thanks to our partners at Teton County for producing the video below on how we can minimize wildlife conflict. This project was supported by a Teton Conservation District grant. Thanks to Wyoming Game & Fish Department, Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and Town of Jackson for contributing to this project.
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Agriculture Update
Soil Testing
Do you want better results from your vegetable garden? Is the long-term production in your hayfield decreasing? Teton Conservation District can help you collect soil samples, interpret results, and identify solutions. Partial funding for laboratory analysis may be available. For more information, contact Robb Sgroi, Land Resources Specialist, at robb@tetonconservation.org or 307-733-2110.
May 17: Teton Conservation District Board Meeting and NRCS Local Work Group Meeting
Join Teton Conservation District (TCD) for our regular monthly board meeting beginning at 1:00 p.m. on May 17, 2023. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) annual Local Work Group (LWG) meeting is an agenda item within TCD’s regular monthly meeting, beginning at 1:30 p.m. The purpose of the NRCS LWG meeting is to provide information, solicit feedback, and consider funding priorities regarding NRCS programming. Attend the meetings in person at our office at 420 W. Pearl Ave. in Jackson or virtually by phone or video conference.
Bob Lucas Inducted into Cowboy Hall of Fame
Bob Lucas—a Teton Conservation District board member since the 1990s—was recently inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame. Bob’s maternal and paternal grandparents (the Lucas and Imeson families) settled in Jackson Hole in the late 1880s and 1890s. Bob grew up calving, branding, haying, trailing cattle to summer pasture 40 miles up the Gros Ventre River, shipping calves to market, and feeding with a two- or four-horse sleigh team in the winter. Bob continues ranching with his wife Kate and daughter Abby, a fifth generation Jackson rancher.
“Natural resource conservation is place-based—it needs to work with the landscape,” says Teton Conservation District’s Executive Director, Carlin Girard. “Bob Lucas is the district’s strongest conduit to the land and our community’s heritage. Bob grounds us with his respectful tone, his care for animals, and leads by example through is work ethic, creativity, and an eye towards simplicity.” Carlin notes that, “Bob would never ask for the notoriety of this award, but he deserves it all day long.”
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Bob Lucas—a Teton Conservation District board member since the 1990s—was recently inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame.
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In the News: The Mountain Neighbor Handbook
KHOL 89.1 recently featured a story about communities that have been inspired by The Mountain Neighbor Handbook and want to create their own versions of the guide. Teton Conservation District staff have fielded roughly a dozen calls from communities in the Rocky Mountains and beyond over the past few months—and we’ve consistently heard that the book’s inviting approach to environmental stewardship resonates far beyond our community.
For those interested in learning how our 40+ partners worked together to create The Mountain Neighbor Handbook, a recording of a National Park Service webinar series called Connected Conservation (C2) is available online. Teton Conservation District staff members Carlin Girard and Phoebe Coburn presented alongside Chip Jenkins (Superintendent of Grand Teton National Park), Max Ludington (President of the Jackson Hole Land Trust), and Chris Colligan (Teton County Public Works Project Manager) for an installment of the series focused on The Mountain Neighbor Handbook. The webinar series explores tools that national parks, partners, and individuals can use to further landscape-scale conservation.
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Sign up for a Free Wildfire Risk Overview
Over the past 10 years, more than 400 Teton County landowners have voluntarily participated in Teton Conservation District’s Wildfire Risk Reduction Program. The program offers free, on-site visits from a wildfire risk reduction professional, followed by delivery of written recommendations. Match funding is available to help implement those recommendations (up to $3,000 per landowner). This program has limited capacity—sign up for a Wildfire Risk Overview soon before all the 2023 slots are full!
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