Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Lands Access topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Snake River Fund, Teton County unveil free river access map and app to show recreational easements and public lands
Summary
Snake River Fund and Teton County presented a new free map and mobile app that maps recreational easements, public lands and hazards along the Snake River corridor; the project was funded with an initial allocation and will carry an annual maintenance cost shared among partners.
Teton County and the Snake River Fund on June 16 presented a new web and mobile mapping project that identifies public‑ and private‑land boundaries, recreational easements, hazards and points of interest along the Snake River corridor. The map and app are free to users within a county geofence and support offline use.
Andy Erskine, Park Superintendent, said the project implements action item A5 from the Snake River Management Plan to "develop accurate maps that identify private and public lands." Ryan Hatch, Executive Director of the Snake River Fund, and Orion (presenting for Snake River Fund and On Water LLC) demonstrated features including recreational‑easement polygons, allowable uses pulled from court judgments, live and historical flow gauge data and a QR code that will be placed at boat ramps. Hatch said the QR code “will bring users to a totally free map that allows them to see where they are relative to all the information within this map.”
Project partners include Snake River Fund, Teton County Parks and Recreation, the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Title 22 Consultants and On Water LLC. Title 22 (Mimi Talugan and Nancy Hughes) spent more than a year researching and locating recreational easements in county records; staff noted that easements were granted to large landowners decades ago and have become harder to trace as parcels subdivided.
Financial details recorded in the meeting: an initial allocation of $10,000 was made toward the project; the county expects roughly $4,000 per year for maintenance, to be split with the Snake River Fund and included in contracted services. The web map geofence covers the Snake River corridor from the southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park south to South Park; planned signage locations include Moose, Wilson and South Park boat ramps.
County and project staff said the map is intended to reduce on‑site signage and improve landowner and river user awareness of existing public easements. Staff noted the map is not a legal instrument and that shifting river channels (the thalweg) mean users must exercise judgment; On Water will periodically update imagery and parcel edges to reflect river changes.
No formal board vote was required for the project update; commissioners praised the collaboration and asked staff to pursue next steps such as outreach to private property owners and potential brochures explaining easement terms.
