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Our Mission & Vision

Friends of the Bridger-Teton works to ensure everyone can enjoy the diversity and wealth of resources on the fifth largest national forest in the U.S. now and into the future.

Our Mission & Vision

Our History

The idea for a nonprofit organization that existed to support the Bridger-Teton National Forest was talked about as early as the 1980s. There were locals who wanted to help their favorite national forest by making donations. But it’s not possible to donate money to the U.S. federal government. Friends of the Bridger-Teton was officially founded in 2018. Since then, we’ve used grants and donations—both monetary and in-kind like bear-proof trash cans—to support the BTNF and help promote responsible recreation on it so that we can all enjoy the forest’s diversity and wealth of resources now and into the future.

 

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

Happenings with Friends

BFFs of the BTNF

BFFs of the BTNF print campaign launches in local publications

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FBT’s new radio station: 1710 AM

  In July, FBT launched a new radio station with tips on how to recreate responsibly on the BTNF, and it’s getting a boost from Indiana Jones. Turn the AM...

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August 2023 Newsletter

  There’s a lot going on during the busiest month on the BTNF. Trailheads and campgrounds are crowded and our Ambassadors are busy educating forest users about responsible recreation and...

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Early Summer 2023

Hello Friends, Summer has finally arrived in Wyoming and I could not be happier! So much has happened over the last few months in the life of Friends of the...

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Blackrock Field Camp

Since its founding in 2016, Blackrock Field Camp has helped several hundred campers from the Wind River Reservation develop and deepen their awareness of their ancestral and/or public lands; connect...

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The Wyoming Range National Recreation Trail

The Wyoming Range National Recreation Trail (WRNRT) is a 75-mile-long trail spanning the crest of the Wyoming Range and connecting several of the BTNF’s six districts. It passes through the...

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Wildlife Ambassador Spotlight

“The dedication and hours put in by our Wildlife Ambassadors is a demonstration of the caliber of help we are fortunate to receive. Our ambassadors are able to maintain their...

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Friends of the Bridger-Teton Awarded Major Grants

In 2022, the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) awarded its largest amount of funding to a single project to date to Friends of the Bridger-Teton. The $1 million...

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Joy of Exploring

Finding your own beautiful places—rather than rely on social media—benefits your brain, the landscape and local wildlife.   “My thinking changes when I step off the trail. I become more...

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When You Have to Eat All Day – Hyperphagia

Fall is the season when bears enter hyperphagia, a state in which they’re constantly in search of food and are more likely to come into human-occupied areas. You can help...

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Our Staff

Margo Feingold

Programs Manager

Jennifer Ricupero

Partnership Manager

Dina Mishev

Communications Manager

Scott Kosiba

Executive Director

Our Board

Ian MacLeod

Gracy Carpenter

Sharon Smitherman

Cyndi Bardman

Steve Markason

Karen Daubert

Ellen Fales

Susan Marsh

Partners

It takes a community to protect an ecosystem.

Friends couldn’t do the work it does without the help and support of dozens of partner organizations and businesses. Each of these partners has committed to stewarding our public lands.

A huge thank you to all of our partners.

Interested in being a partner of Friends?

Become a Partner
@bridgertetonfriends You've got less than a week to submit your thoughts on the redesign of what is likely the most popular trailhead in the BTNF's Jackson Ranger District: the Cache Creek Trailhead. See the proposed redesign, submit comments, and get project updates here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/btnf/?project=66077. BTNF staff worked with a local landscape architecture firm to create a conceptual plan for a new trailhead design. This conceptual plan has numerous elements, any of which can be removed or modified based on public or specialist input. Comments may be submitted online through the project page, by mail, or directly to the Forest Service office, located on North Cache Street in Jackson, by May 21, 2024. #bridgertetonnationalforest #bridgertetonfriends #cachecreek #nationalforest #nationalforests #publiclands #wyomingwildlands #stewardship #leavenotrace #publiccomment #btnf #btnfjacksonrangerdistrict #cachecreekpubliccomments We could not be happier and more proud to announce the continued support of and belief in us that the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board showed last week. The lodging tax-funded organization approved our $600,000 funding request, which will enable us to continue to educate visitors and manage visitor impact on the areas of the BTNF in Teton County, primarily through our flagship Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation Program. Under the current partnership, which started July 1, 2023, JHTTB funding supported 11,853 total hours of volunteer service. Our volunteer Ambassadors extinguished more than 200 abandoned campfires, issued 153 food storage violations, and flagged 89 out-of-bounds campers. "Supporting the services that Friends of Bridger-Teton provides through visitor management and education is an invaluable way for us to reach visitors, and residents, in a highly impactful way," says JHTTB Chair Erik Dombroski. #bridgertetonfriends #ambassadorsforresponsiblerecreation #visitjacksonhole @visitjacksonhole #jacksonhole #lodgingtaxfunded #leavenotrace #responsiblerecreation #nationalforest #publiclands #nationalforests #publicland #bridgertetonnationalforest Ethan McLeod is a Best Friend of the BTNF by helping teach local youth about river stewardship and safe river use. (He's executive director of the JH Kayak Club.) Read more in this week's @jhnewsandguide #bffofthebtnf @jhkayakclub #bridgertetonnationalforest #bridgertetonfriends #publiclands #snakeriver #jacksonhole #nationalforest #nationalforests #wyomingwildlands #leavenotrace #responsiblerecreation #recreateresponsibly @tetonweedpest has added new invasive species to its list of County Declared Species. Teton County is one of five counties that include part of the BTNF, and it's likely that if a species is in Teton County, it's also in the other BTNF counties. BULBOUS BLUEGRASS is a perennial grass native to Eurasia that was first introduced to North America in the early 1900s. It is a cool season species that spreads rapidly by starting, and completing, its growing cycle early in the season before native species have a chance to compete for resources. It is frequently found in disturbed sites and along roads and trails where it forms dense stands that encroach on adjacent native plant systems and reduces forage quality for wildlife and livestock. Species within the LXODIDAE family of TICKS have also been added. Ticks are responsible for approximately 90% of all vector-borne diseases diagnosed in the U.S. each year; tick-borne diseases more than doubled between 2004 and 2019. A couple of species in the Ixodidae family are native to Wyoming, but changes in land use patterns, trade and travel, and a changing climate are leading to expanded ranges of tick species in the area. If you want to participate in some citizen science, @tetonweedpest is conducting field surveillance of ticks throughout Wyoming and you can join in by completing the interest form on the group's website at tcweed.org/vectorborne. #tetonweedpest #bridgertetonnationalforest #bridgertetonfriends #invasivespecies #citizenscience #jacksonholecitizenscience #btnf #wyominginvasivespecies #bridgertetonnationalforest #bridgertetonfriends #wyomingwildlands #wyomingwildlife #nationalforests #nationalforest #publiclands #leavenotrace #responsiblerecreation

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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