Did Park Service Overlook Court Rulings on Wildlife at Grand Teton?

"A National Park Service decision that gave Wyoming officials control over wildlife management on private and state lands within Grand Teton National Park seems to have sidestepped historic negotiations that led to today's Grand Teton National Park, as well as longstanding court rulings that have upheld the Park Service's authority to manage all wildlife within a park, even on non-federal lands.

Of course, what advice officials in the Park Service's Intermountain Regional office used to make that decision (attached below) in November 2014 is impossible at this point to know. Since the agency is being sued by the National Parks Conservation Association and Greater Yellowstone Coalition over the decision, agency personnel and the Interior Department's solicitor on this case have declined to discuss the matter with the Traveler.

But there is ample evidence in court records going back decades that supports the authority of the Park Service to manage wildlife on all lands within a unit of the National Park System, regardless of ownership. Then, too, there was the clear guidance and intent of top Interior Department officials who, in 1949 and 1950, negotiated with Wyoming officials to reach a compromise that permitted the original footprint of Grand Teton to be enlarged through merger with the Jackson Hole National Monument and private lands acquired, and donated to the federal government, by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

How, or why, the Intermountain Region staff overlooked those rulings and the Interior Department's position in 1950 hopefully will come to light as the lawsuit progresses through the legal system."

Kurt Repanshek reports for National Parks Traveler March 31, 2016.