If You Build it, Will They Come? Inside the Grand Targhee Expansion

On the west side of the Teton Range, Wyoming’s Grand Targhee Resort has long been known for deep powder, low-density, uncrowded skiing and a low-key, laid-back family vibe. First opened in 1969 by local Idaho farmers, Targhee was built with a federal grant as a community asset to keep residents from moving away from the area. It’s surrounded by a vast swath of wildlife habitat in pristine national forest land, federal Wilderness and Grand Teton National Park. It is also, due to topography, only accessible via Teton Valley, Idaho. Today, it serves eastern Idaho communities including Victor, Driggs and Idaho Falls, and is a beacon for destination skiers who value big terrain matched with a vibrant local feel, reasonable pricing and a lack of commercialism and pretense.

But big changes to the beloved ski area are looming. In 2018, Grand Targhee Resort owner Geordie Gillett submitted a Master Development Plan to the Caribou-Targhee National Forest proposing significant boundary expansions, new infrastructure including lifts, new buildings and extensive glading inside as well as outside its existing permit, all on public land leased from the U.S. Forest Service. That boundary expansion was reduced from 1,200 new acres to 866 due to vocal public opposition after the initial scoping period in 2021.

Nonetheless, the current scale, breadth and potential impacts are roiling local communities and government on both the Wyoming and Idaho sides of the Tetons, as well as wildlife and conservation groups across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Critics say the ask is unwarranted, over the top and with detriments that far outweigh any perceived public good. Grand Targhee has told the Forest Service it needs to expand to remain competitive. Many are not convinced.

One worry for some residents on the Idaho side is a simultaneous application by Grand Targhee’s Gillett to the Teton County, Wyoming, Board of County Commissioners to undertake dense development on 120 acres of private land at the base of the ski area. The project highlights complex, hot-button issues beyond the fight over public lands: Grand Targhee is in Teton County, Wyoming, but the Idaho-only access means tax revenues will go to Wyoming while burdens of infrastructure, a worsening housing crisis, human services, traffic congestion, new low-wage job creation, tourism pressure, and other severe socioeconomic problems will fall on already struggling Idaho communities with no way to pay for them.

“These are two completely different chapters: public land development in wildlife habitat, and then development of 120 acres of private land with luxury homes and hotels in Teton County, Wyoming, that will impact Teton County, Idaho,” said Luther Propst, a county commissioner in Teton County, Wyoming. “And we can’t send our tax dollars to Idaho.”

Kevin Krasnow, conservation director for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, sees Targhee’s asks as an event that will not only cause irreparable damage to the environment, but also have wide-ranging, negative ripple effects.

“There will be really big impacts from this project,” Krasnow said. “And there is no compelling purpose and need, or public benefit, particularly in the backdrop of the whole region socioeconomically, and continued constant habitat loss for wildlife. It’s more likely to be a detriment to both the human population and the natural ecosystem.”

PUBLIC LAND PRIVATIZED FOR PROFIT?

In response to Targhee’s request in March of 2025, the Forest Service released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, which weighed in at a hefty 600 pages and examined many of the issues related to Targhee’s public land development in the Caribou-Targhee. The proposed action is far-reaching enough and in land deemed so sensitive for wildlife and water quality, that the forest plan would require substantial change to accommodate it.

Currently, the ski area comprises 2,600 acres, similar to nearby Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s 2,500 acres. Targhee, however, sees just over 200,000 skier visits a year, less than half the 500,000-plus annual skier visits that JHMR receives, and projected skier visits to Targhee over the next 10 years hover around 300,000 on the high end.

Yet, Targhee’s proposal asks to use public land to implement the following, among other things: 866 acres of currently undeveloped forest land for new ski area development in two non-contiguous areas, one in Teton Canyon, called South Bowl by the proposal, and one in Mill Creek, referred to as Mono Trees; two new lifts and avalanche control; guest facility construction at the top and bottom of the new lifts, extensive access and maintenance road construction, and avalanche control infrastructure. With existing boundaries, Targhee requests the ability to build four new lifts; 550 acres of inbounds glading, 57 acres of snowmaking; and five new guest service facilities, among other, smaller projects.

Opponents say the majority of development and particularly the boundary expansion, spearheaded by Gillett, doesn’t reflect the actual needs of the ski area. “The ‘needs’ sound more like ‘I want,’” said Krasnow. And it’s not just environmental groups that have that perception. The Teton County, Wyoming commissioners have drafted a letter to the Forest Service in opposition of the public land expansion. “There is not a need to expand terrain,” Commission Chair Mark Newcomb told the Jackson Hole News and Guide on June 11. “The skier experience is already one of very low density.”

For Commissioner Propst, the Targhee proposal intensifies many of the issues and fallout from development that Teton County, Wyoming, has already been struggling to get a handle on.

“There are so many concerns with both the private and public land development, and the scale proposed here is huge,” Propst said. “Our county supports wildlife; and Targhee can build out its existing terrain instead of expanding to the detriment of wildlife and public lands users.”

Gillett expressed disappointment in the stance of the commissioners in the same News and Guide article, suggesting public land issues are outside their purview, despite the fact the commission has a “cooperating agency” status on the project meaning their comment carries more weight than that of individual civilians. In 2019, Gillett was quoted in the Teton Valley News saying expansion ideas came from his own experiences. “I’m here every day skiing around. So a lot of times these plans are just me saying, ‘You know what I would like as a skier?’” Gillett told TVN. “We’ve got this amazing setting with a lot of incredible skiing. There are these two pockets [Mono Trees and South Bowl] that aren’t wilderness and are adjacent to us and I want to be able to get in there, and show people more terrain and a range of skiing experiences in the Tetons.” Gillett did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

The opposition to boundary expansion doesn’t preclude upgrades and improvements inside Targhee’s existing boundaries. Three possible alternative actions are listed in the DEIS and were developed based on previous public comment periods. Alternative 3, which allows for inbounds improvements with no new terrain expansion is the preferred option of Wyoming’s Teton County Commission as well as environmental nonprofits, albeit with some amendments to limit extensive glading’s impact on nesting raptors and whitebark pine. It allows for new lifts, some restaurants and more limited glading that will improve inbounds skiing opportunities. On June 16, the Teton County, Idaho County Commission, also a cooperating agency, voted 2-1 to draft a letter to the U.S. Forest Service opposing the ski area boundary expansion into more public lands.

“The National Environmental Policy Act [under which the DEIS is carried out] is the premiere environmental law, where the public has a chance to opine, comment and influence how and what projects are implemented on public land. The alternatives all came from previous public comments,” said Hilary Eisen, policy director for the Boise, Idaho-based Winter Wildlands Alliance. The WWA is a nonprofit which works for wildlands preservation, and supports Alternative 3 “with some modifications,” according to Eisen.

Environmental groups ranging from WWA to Protect Our Water Jackson Hole are unanimously opposed to the terrain expansion for its perceived lack of economic necessity for Targhee as well as findings in the DEIS. “The wildlife and wild processes are under tremendous pressure with all the private land development,” said the JHCA’s Krasnow. “Now is not the time to start slicing off critical habitat on public land. We know wildlife will not continue to use these areas with development and human activity.”

The DEIS found the proposed expansion likely to have significant impact on resident and migrating animals, as well as plants, including the cutting down of more than 450 white bark pines, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and elimination of habitat critical to a variety of wildlife. The boundary expansion areas of South Bowl and Mono Trees are particularly rich habitat, home to a mule deer migration route and crucial winter range, moose, grizzly bear, bighorn sheep, lynx, elk, and pika, among other species. It also has been observed to support the nests of boreal owls, flammulated owls, goshawks, peregrine falcons, woodpeckers, golden eagles, and rare finches.

The wording of the DEIS, however, suggests when individual animals or plants die or lose habitat due to the potential development, it will not be at such a scale that their species populations as a whole will decline, a point of view conservationists take issue with and question the logic. “So, even if animals are endangered, if the development is not going to wipe out the entire population, let’s just not worry about it?” Eisen asked.

COMMUNITY, WILDLIFE AND A LIFESTYLE AT RISK

Joining the opposition to the Targhee expansion are backcountry skiers, due to the likely environmental and socioeconomic fallout from the project, but also for the loss of ski terrain and character in an as-yet wild, remote-feeling canyon just west of Grand Teton National Park.

“Targhee can improve ski opportunities within its existing boundaries. There is complete absurdity in developing wildlife habitat for industrial ski development that will negatively impact animals at the same time a multiagency effort currently asks backcountry skiers to stay out of certain areas to protect imperiled animals,” said Gary Kofinas, chair of the Teton Backcountry Alliance, a backcountry advocacy group, noting that much lower-impact, human-powered backcountry skiers would also lose with expansion. “Places like Teton Canyon are rapidly disappearing in the world under an ever-expanding human footprint. Targhee’s ask just reads as a privately held company seeking public land to increase profits, assets and saleability.”

Other issues highlighted in the DEIS include the fact that the base of one of the new lifts in the proposed Mono Trees expansion is in a sensitive wetland where development is not currently allowed by the forest plan. Negative impacts to the wetland and downstream creeks are likely, from increased sedimentation to pollution. This aquatic influence, or riparian zone, runs into Teton Creek, which supports wildlife along its corridor and is part of the Driggs drinking water supply.

In an informational meeting held by the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Driggs in April of 2025, posters and maps of the proposed expansion, alternatives and environmental impacts were examined by a crowd of locals, with mixed feelings. “I like some of the expansion,” said Gale Crozier, a skier and Victor, Idaho resident, while she studied maps at the meeting. “People are coming; we can’t stop that. But growth should come with better infrastructure, and I don’t know how that looks.”

Other attendees swung more toward Alternative 3 regarding the public land decisions. “I don’t need the [ski terrain] expansion

that is into precious, critical wildlife habitat,” said Dave Miller, another Teton Valley resident. “Are we just going to abandon the wildlife of Teton Canyon? But I am into the rest of the [private land] development. Geordie [Gillette] can have his little city up there, as long as it stays up there.”

The future of this public land ultimately falls to the Forest Supervisor. Mel Bolling, supervisor of the Caribou-Targhee since 2018, is retiring this month. The decision will be made by his successor, Kim Pierson. Despite the 600-page DEIS document, critics maintain there are too many detrimental impacts, no true demonstrated need for Targhee to expand, and too many gaps in the data, from affecting wildlife to the socioeconomic impacts to eastern Idaho communities and infrastructure.

“Grand Targhee is not crowded, it has a lot of space, no lift lines, and improving existing terrain seems a better use of public land than expansion,” said WWA’s Eisen. “We’re largely supportive of the inbounds plans because we want Targhee to thrive, and we feel they can do that within the existing permit.”

Public comment is being taken until Friday June 20. Comments on the DEIS are only valid if they are specific to the project, include new information or point out flaws in the analysis, and are specific to the project, according to the Forest Service. Form letters with identical comments are treated as just one comment. Grand Targhee’s summary of hoped-for approvals can be found here, and the full draft EIS can be found here.

The coalition of nonprofits in opposition have prepared information for the public and commenters, such as this offering from Winter Wildlands Alliance. The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance has a recording of a community information meeting here. The Caribou-Targhee requests comments be submitted via email to District Ranger Jay Pence: jay.pence@usda.gov with ‘Grand Targhee Master Development Plan Projects’ in the subject line.