Elk Refuge asks tourism board for $50k to keep visitor center staffed

The National Elk Refuge has put in a $50,000 request to the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board’s “ambassador services” program, aiming to stabilize staffing for a weekend supervisor and two winter seasonal naturalist positions. The application frames the roles as on-the-ground visitor management, the sort of face-to-face work the board says it wants to fund, not marketing. See: Ambassador Services Funding Application.

Procedurally, this is the front end of the lodging-tax reimbursement pipeline: the board only reimburses eligible expenses after invoices and vouchers are approved at a regular meeting. The Refuge is pitching the positions as the reason the National Elk Refuge and Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center can stay open seven days a week, including during winter periods when other public land visitor centers cut hours.

The application says the project has not been funded through this specific program before. It notes that the winter naturalist roles were historically supported by sleigh-ride revenue, but that money has been redirected into a national Refuge Revenue Sharing account, and visitor counts have not returned to pre-COVID levels. If the board does not fully fund the ask, the Refuge says it would likely have to scale back coverage, including keeping the weekend supervisor at 32 hours instead of 40, and lean harder on recreation fees or other internal sources.