Teton Creek Collaborative secures more land for pathway access

Teton Creek Pathway construction, 2019

The Teton Creek Collaborative (TCC), a partnership that includes the Teton Regional Land Trust, Friends of the Teton River, Valley Advocates for Responsible Development, Teton Valley Trails and Pathways, and LegacyWorks Group achieved an important milestone this December. The Teton Creek Corridor Project has secured protection of a creekside parcel that was slated for industrial use. 

The Teton Creek Corridor Project embodies what a community can do when it aligns with a shared vision and purpose. Over the past five years, the TCC and an array of partners and funders have come together to tackle several big opportunities. In the process we have increased our capacity to take on challenges and catalyze an array of follow-on collaborations from the new river access park to an innovative groundwater recharge market. 

Last week, the Teton Regional Land Trust completed the most recent conservation easement along the Teton Creek Corridor. The County-owned property borders Teton Creek and was once a proposed site for industrial use. Instead the County decided to work with the Teton Creek Collaborative to protect the property from future development. The property will remain in Teton County ownership with a conservation easement held by the Land Trust. The easement preserves the open space along the Teton Creek Corridor and allows for public access along the new pathway for biking, walking, and horseback riding (with a winter closure to provide a secure and undisturbed habitat for wintering big game). 

Many thanks to the visionary funders, government partners and nonprofit leaders in our community and beyond who made this all possible. From the LOR Foundation's initial support to all the private and public partnerships that followed, the Teton Creek Corridor Project brought millions of dollars into the valley to achieve one of the community's long standing goals - protecting wildlife and agriculture, restoring habitat, and creating recreational access and safe pathways along Teton Creek. The partners are excited to welcome the community to the site when the pathway opens this spring once the winter closure is lifted.

For more information visit tetoncreekcorridor.org and Teton Valley News: More open space protected along Teton Creek Corridor