Preserving Texas In the News

State board takes no action on Big Bend land sale because of boundary error on map.

By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The State Land Board made no decision Tuesday on whether to sell the Christmas Mountains, citing an error in a map given to bidders. The map had part of the boundary wrong in the northwestern part of the 9,270 acres of the state-owned wilderness property near Big Bend National Park in West Texas.

The board instead will accept new bids on the property at its meeting Nov. 2. It had received six bids on the property ranging from $10,500 to $652,000. Members of the public told the board Tuesday that the state would be setting a bad precedent by selling land that had been donated to it.

The land was given to the state in 1991 by the Conservation Fund, which acquired it with a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Luke Metzger, the director of Environment Texas, a nonprofit group, called the delay an initial victory.

"They say it was a technical error, but I'm sure that the public outcry may have had something to do with it," Metzger said. He said the delay will give his group more time to try to come up with alternatives to private ownership.

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he thinks private owners could take good care of the land. The property has no public access, and deed restrictions forbid the use of off-road vehicles, the installing of utility lines or the grazing of livestock.

"My priority here is preservation in its original state," he said.

cosborn@statesman.com; 445-3871