The City of Driggs sits in the beautiful southeast corner of Idaho. The people are friendly, the wildlife is abundant and the scenery is breathtaking with views of the Teton Valley and the Grand Tetons. From the beginning of this project, it was obvious that this needed to be golf development that was extremely environmentally sensitive.

The site was a piece of gently rolling farmland adjacent to the Targhee National Forest. Three trout filled springs ran through the southwest corner of the property. An occasional moose would be seen feeding by the edges of the springs.

The overall project consisted of residential housing, a hotel/spa, and golf. The golf component was to consist of an 18-hole Championship caliber golf course, a 9-hole par 3 course, and a large practice facility. When land planning began, Gary Stephenson was careful to avoid the spring fed creeks with roads or residential lots. The golf course was planned so that wildlife passage corridors were established, which allowed animals to migrate through the golf property and into the national forest. Native grasses and several hundred trees were planted throughout the course.

Numerous water bodies were built that would mimic natural waterways with fish ladders for trout. Fish ladders are "step ups" in streams that allow fish to move upstream. For a fish to be able to jump up a waterfall, there must be a pool big enough and deep enough for the fish to gather speed to enable it to jump one or two feet to the next level of the stream. The photographs below show the construction methods used to develop the fish ladders at Teton Springs.

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