Give & Getaway Package

Stay in Grand Teton Nation Park and give something back to Mother Nature

Volunteer on Saturday, September 25th and receive 20% off of the established room rate September 21st-26th, 2010 at Colter Bay Village or Jackson Lake Lodge.  Each year the Grand Teton Lodge Company along with Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation volunteer to remove miles of both old buck and rail fence line and unused wire fencing.  This year along with the volunteer project enjoy a presentation by our Environmental Director during lunch and an opportunity to take a Green Tour of Jackson Lake Lodge.  It is a full behind the scenes tour and demonstration of effort we go to with our environmental initiatives to help our planet.

Along with the 20% off, the presentation by our Environmental Director, and the Green Tour you will receive a pair of work gloves, a hydration pack, and a boxed lunch on the day of the volunteer event.  

For more information or to book the Give & Getaway Package please call 800-628-9988 and speak with one of our Package Specialists.   

About the Fence Removal Project: 

The history of Range Land in the American West could be defined simply as “before wire and after wire.”  Many historians believe one of the defining moments in the history of the West came when a small bunch of wild longhorn steers stopped and backed away from eight slender strands of twisted wire equipped with sharp barbs. This event happened in 1876 when John W. (Bet-a-Million) Gates erected an enclosure on the Plaza in San Antonio, Texas to demonstrate to gathered ranchers, that newly-invented “Devil’s Rope” could securely contain wild livestock. From that moment on, the West would never be the same again.  This defining event ended the era of open range and the use of free graze which had reigned supreme since the earliest settlers began to populate mid-America.

As early pioneers moved into the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming, the need to use fencing as a range management tool was already well understood.  Even though smooth and barbed wire was available, it was expensive.  And besides that, fence postholes were nearly impossible to dig in this cobble/gravel soil left by our early glaciers.  Our earliest settlers turned to the abundant supply of Lodge pole Pine trees to construct our iconic “Buck and Rail” fences.  Later, with increased modernization, the “Devil’s Rope” would weave its way into Jackson Hole as well.

John and Frank Craighead began studying Grizzly bear in Grant Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in the late 1950’s.  It became clear through their research that our animal population didn’t understand the concept Park boundaries.  Their studies reflected a significantly larger habitat study area defined as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.  From that date forward this ecosystem, the greatest intact temperate zone ecosystem remaining in the world, has and will continue to host scientific studies of all facets of this ecosystem.

Of study interest are the migratory habits of many of our large mammals.  Each year Elk and Pronghorn migrate through this ecosystem.  Pronghorn constitute the second largest migratory heard in the Western Hemisphere – second only to Caribou. Current herd estimates are around 40,000 animals.  Elk seasonally migrate from the National Elk Refuge, North of Jackson, to the Yellowstone Plateau.  Our challenge is the existence of non-used fences that remain in this migratory habitat, dating back to our early pioneer days.  These unused fences block heard travel and often entrap newborn calves.