Bridger-Teton ambassadors want more boots on the ground, less on marketing

On the trail, this is the kind of program that can matter when a fire ring is still smoking or a parking lot is already jammed. Friends of the Bridger-Teton says its FBT Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation funding application staff report covers a growing field program meant to put more people on the ground across the Bridger-Teton National Forest, with two new ambassador positions in Teton County and 28 volunteers expected there this season.

The group says the point is to help the forest stretch thin staff and limited vehicles, not replace agency work. Volunteers get per diem, mileage, and housing or campsite support, while about 15 percent of the request goes to staff time. FBT says it is shifting communications and marketing costs into a separate grant application, which is part of the reason this ask is lower than last year even though the program itself is expanding.

The bigger message is familiar in Teton County, tourism is still paying for stewardship, and the forest is still asking for help to manage the fallout. FBT ties the program to the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board's sustainable destination management push, and argues the ambassadors are now needed even more as snowpack runs low and abandoned campfires are already turning up in dispersed sites. That makes this less a feel-good volunteer story than a backcountry operations story, with real stakes for wildfire risk, user conflict, and the summer crush on public land.