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Our Mission & Vision

Mission: We inspire connection, stewardship, and responsible use of the vast and diverse public lands of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Vision: A future where all people feel a deep connection to the Bridger-Teton National Forest through education, partnerships and action, ensuring sustainable human uses exist in balance with land, water, and wildlife.

Our Mission & Vision

Our Story

The idea began in the early 1980s: Teton County locals wanted to donate money to make improvements to trailheads and other projects to support and enhance their favorite national forest. However, it’s not possible to donate money to the U.S. federal government. We needed a nonprofit to support the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Friends of the Bridger-Teton was officially founded in 2019. Since then, we’ve used grants and donations—both monetary and in-kind items (like bear-proof trash cans and fire rings) to support the BTNF and help promote responsible recreation so that we can all enjoy the forest’s diversity and wealth of resources now and into the future.

In March of 2022, the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) awarded FBT $1 million of grant funding to support marketing and communications efforts focused on responsible recreation and on-the-ground ambassadors on the BTNF. This injection of grant funds into our organization represented a turning point and significant expansion of the impact FBT could have on the forest. The JHTTB continues to be a partner and funder of FBT’s work as an important pillar in visitor management and education in Teton County, Wyoming

Our master agreement with the USFS puts us in a unique position to help fill gaps in funding and capacity so we can do projects similar to the very projects our friends in the 1980s envisioned for the Bridger-Teton National Forest and more. We partner with businesses and NGOs to make stuff happen. Our forest ambassadors work diligently to educate visitors and prevent things from happening (like wildfires and human/wildlife conflicts), and our educational videos and materials help people prepare before they enter the forest.

 

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Infinite Opportunities for Exploration

The 3.4 million acres of the BTNF cross five counties and are managed by six ranger districts. The BTNF is the single largest mass of public land within the 15-million acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, itself the largest intact ecosystem in the Lower 48.

Videos de habilidades del senderismo

Estos videos explicá ¿cómo prevenir accidentes? ¿Cómo dejar un lugar mejor de como lo encontraste? ¿Qué encargar para una caminata? ¿Y cómo protegerse de y cohabitar con osos?

Videos de habilidades del senderismo

About the BTNF

The Bridger-Teton National Forest is bigger than Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks combined, and home to some of the wildest landscapes in the Lower 48. It has 3 Wilderness areas and more than 2,500 miles of trails, and contains the headwaters of the Green and Snake Rivers. People recreate, recharge, and find refuge on the BTNF. If you haven’t, please explore the forest, whether by skiing, hiking, hunting, fishing, or collecting firewood. Humans aren’t the only users of the BTNF, though: 74 species of mammals, 355 species of birds, six species of reptiles, and 25 species of fish live within its borders.

Our Staff

Cheyenne Sterck

Development Coordinator

Carlie Ideker

Interim Executive Director & Program Manager

Shane O’Brien

Project Manager

Monica Elliott

Forest Corps program Manager

Jennifer Ricupero

Partnership Manager

Dina Mishev

Communications Manager

Our Board

Linda Merigliano

Karla Bird

Lisa Franzen, Co-Secretary

Kathy Gross

Marshall Durston

Chuck Butterfield

Tim Gardiner, Vice President

Ian MacLeod, Treasurer

Sharon Smitherman

Steve Markason, President

Karen Daubert, Co-Secretary

Ellen Fales, Board Member Emeritus

Forest Corps

We’re excited to introduce the Forest Corps, a new seasonal initiative designed to help fill critical gaps.

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Era Coriz

Ellie Zaher

Mickey Atkins

Abby Franklin

Ash Gunter

LeeAnn Shelton

Elly McFarland

Forest Corps Crew Lead

Monica Elliott

Forest Corps program Manager

Partners

It takes a community to protect an ecosystem.

No one organization can steward a landscape as marvelously expansive, diverse, and complex as the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Always with the best interests of the BTNF in mind, we work with more than 100 partner organizations, including nonprofits like Friends of Pathways, Teton Adaptive Sports, and Tip Top Search and Rescue; government offices like Sublette County Weed & Pest, the Town of Jackson, and the USDA Forest Service; and also private companies like Kate’s Real Food, Roadhouse Brewing Co., and Dometic.

Our ability to be good stewards across a forest the size of Connecticut depends heavily on our ability to work with partners with shared values and priorities.

A huge thank you to all of our partners.

Interested in being a partner of Friends?

Become a Partner

FBT News

Going the distance for the Bridger-Teton

Every year, a determined group of cyclists rides 206 miles from Logan, Utah, to Teton Village, Wyoming, climbing three mountain passes along the way. Known as LoToJa, the event welcomes...

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Be BearWise This Fall

Wildlife managers across Wyoming are responding to numerous calls from the public about bears accessing unsecured attractants such as garbage, bird feeders, and domestic livestock such as chickens, goats, ducks,...

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Partnership Grows Wildfire Resilience and Tribal Youth Stewardship

The Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Friends of Bridger-Teton (FBT), and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) partnered together to expand forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction efforts across...

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Forest Corps’ Kemmerer District Glow-Up

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WyoFile Features FBT Forest Corps

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How to Dispose of Bear Spray

Everyone knows that carrying bear spray is essential when recreating in bear country. Harder to know is how to dispose of half-used or expired cans. Because bear spray is an...

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JHMR Lift Tickets & Lodging Support Stewardship of the BTNF

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has operated on the BTNF for more than 60 years under a special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service. Thanks to the Ski Conservation Fund,...

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Greys River’s Justin Laycock on the radio

Justin Laycock, Greys River District Ranger, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Wednesday, August 26. Laycock summarized the current condition of the Fish Creek area south of Smoot, one...

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BTNF-FBT Ambassador Randy Roberts Hikes with VP Vance

Public lands are for everyone, including the Vice President. Ambassadors like Randy Roberts help take care of them.

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Thank You to Executive Director Scott Kosiba

On behalf of the Friends of Bridger-Teton board, we want to announce that our Executive Director, Scott Kosiba, has resigned to focus on his family and his newborn son.   ...

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@bridgertetonfriends Where has your bear spray taken you? While you hope to never have to use it, you never want to be out on the BTNF without bear spray, especially this time of year as bears are particularly active and aggressive in their search for food before they go into hibernation. “She was coming at me, and her mouth was open, and I was able to get my bear spray out of the holster. And I shot it from the ground, holding it with both hands, like a gun or something, and sprayed like heck, and she turned around and left.”—hiker Maggie Schwartz on encountering a mom bear in the Teton Pass area of the BTNF’s Jackson Ranger District Read more about Maggie’s encounter and how to dispose of expired bear spray in the links in our bio. DM us with photos of where bear spray has taken you! #bearaware #keepwildlifewild If you can’t get outside today, maybe the next best thing? A couple of hints: It is among the busiest sites in its BTNF district. It is only several miles from the tallest peak in the range it is in. (If anyone has any details on the landslide above it, please DM us!) #bridgertetonnationalforest #tuesdaytrivia A little history lesson on World Teachers’ Day (thanks to @bearsprayshack) Bear spray is common now, but it was invented less than 50 years ago. • After college, zoology graduate Carrie Hunt spent 3 seasons in Yellowstone National Park working with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. During this time, she witnessed many bears get relocated and then euthanized after conflicts with people. She decided she needed to return to school to do something to help the bears. • In 1981, Hunt joined the University of Montana as a graduate student, working with biologist Chuck Jonkel. Her goal was to find a way to deter bears from entering campsites at night, which at the time was the number one cause of human fatalities from bear attacks. • Hunt discovered that Halt, a capsaicin-based pepper spray originally used by mailmen to deter dogs, turned away every bear in her research. Because Halt could only spray 6 feet, Hunt then worked on a longer spray range. • Bill Pounds, who later founded Counter Assault, helped Hunt develop a prototype with a 20 foot long, 3 foot wide spray range. • Human injuries from bears have decreased from 45 per year in the 1960s to 1 per year in the 2000s. The number of bears who have been removed or euthanized has also decreased significantly, from 37 bears (33 black bears and 4 grizzlies) per year in the 1960s to less than 1 bear total per year in the 2000s. • Where is she now? In 1996, Hunt founded the Wind River Bear Institute, where she still works training Karelian bear dogs. These dogs are ‘Wildlife K9’s’, a non-lethal bear deterrent (like bear spray), and are used to safely push large and/or aggressive wildlife away from areas of potential human conflict. Between August 21 and late September last year, the Dollar Lake Fire, in the Upper Green River area of the BTNF, burned approximately 20,000 acres. Checking out the Lakeside, Porcupine Pass, and Shirley Lake Trails last weekend, the first two have been cleared and are in great shape. The Shirley Lake Trail hasn’t been cleared, but the hiking was still fairly easy. Not sure a horse could or would want to do it though. #dollarlakefire #windrivermountains

We acknowledge with respect that our facilities are situated on the aboriginal land of the Shoshone Bannock. Eastern Shoshone. Northern Arapaho. Crow. Assiniboine. Sioux. Gros Ventre. Nez Perce.

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