GTNP Hosts Volunteer Event

Grand Teton National Park will waive entrance fees Saturday in recognition of National Public Lands Day. National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis announced that all 397 national park sites will offer free entry in an effort to encourage individuals, families and communities to reconnect with nature and explore America’s great outdoors. Grand Teton National Park Spokesperson Jackie Skaggs says those visiting this park are being encouraged to join the National Parks Conservation Association, Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation and Grand Teton National Park for a fence improvement project to benefit pronghorn and their unimpeded movement across the landscape. She says volunteers will help modify an old fence along the Elk Ranch on the park’s east boundary.  She says the fence is left over from the cattle grazing days and so has barbed wire on it.  The project is to remove the lower strand of the barbed wire and replace it with smooth wire at a higher level than the barbed strand it replaces.  Skaggs explains the pronghorn are more likely to duck under a fence than to go over it.  Skaggs says the project will run from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm Saturday.