By R.A. DYER
Star-Telegram staff writer
AUSTIN -- Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson says he's going
forward with a controversial plan to auction off the pristine Christmas
Mountains to wealthy private interests despite renewed interest in the
property by the National Park Service.
Patterson says he won't
allow a delay of the sale, which could come as early as November,
because the National Park Service will not allow hunting on the
property in far West Texas. Patterson is a strong Second Amendment
advocate who sponsored the state's concealed-handgun law.
"As he
has stated in the past, Commissioner Patterson ... would not be willing
to sell the Christmas Mountains to the National Park Service if it
would mean that there would never be public hunting allowed on the
property," Jim Suydam, Patterson's spokesman, said in a statement.
Controversial sales
Patterson's
insistence on selling the 9,269-acre tract follows other controversial
attempts by the state to sell public land to private interests. Last
year the General Land Office presided over the proposed sale of 400
acres at Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth, and in 2005 the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department tried to sell 46,300 acres at Big Bend Ranch
State Park to a wealthy developer.
Those properties ended up
staying in government hands after public outcry. But the Christmas
Mountains deal continues to go forward despite an outcry from
conservationists and statements from those who donated the Christmas
Mountains land to the state that they intended that it remain in public
hands.
The School Land Board, of which Patterson is a member, was
set to complete the Christmas Mountains sale last month. But it delayed
completion until this month because of a glitch in the official maps of
the property.
The state parks department and the national parks
system had declined to buy the property, which is part of the Permanent
School Fund Inventory. But on Friday, Patterson received a letter from
William E. Wellman, superintendent of the U.S. Interior Department,
saying the National Park Service wants to re-evaluate its position.
Wellman
acknowledged in his letter that the National Park Service had earlier
said that adding the Christmas Mountains to its inventory would not be
feasible, but said it now wanted Patterson to delay the sale so the
agency could reconsider acquiring the tract, which abuts Big Bend
National Park.
"The National Park Service ... requests that you postpone the sale until we have time to finish our evaluation," Wellman wrote.
Nothing doing, Patterson responded.
"The
National Park Service prohibits hunting and enforces an
unconstitutional ban on the personal possession of firearms," Suydam
said. "Commissioner Patterson's message to Superintendent Wellman was
simple: No hunting, no firearms, no deal."
A 'pet issue'
Luke
Metzger, director of the advocacy group Environment Texas, said the
state will have broken its promise if the sale goes through to private
interests. He said that it was "grossly irresponsible" of Patterson to
take the property out of public hands and insist that only a few
wealthy individuals have access to it.
"The original intent [of
the donors] was that the land be made available to the National Park
Service or the [state parks department]," Metzger said. "For him to
stand in the way of that for some pet issue is grossly irresponsible.
Some of the buyers have said that under no circumstances would they
allow the public on there. ... It'll be owned by one rich guy who lets
wealthy elites go hunting on it. This is far from the vision of the
original donation."
The Christmas Mountains are at the northwest
corner of Big Bend National Park. The property was donated to the state
in 1991 by the Virginia-based Conservation Fund and the
Pennsylvania-based Richard King Mellon Foundation on the condition that
it remain protected from development.
Then-Land Commissioner Gary
Mauro told the donors that the state agreed to restrictions that would
allow transfer of the land only to the National Park Service or the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The General Land Office has
said it had agreed to hold the property but cannot invest the hundreds
of thousands of dollars needed to fence it and protect it from
poachers. The agency also has a fiduciary duty to earn money on state
land for the Permanent School Fund, Suydam said.
Residents of the
area say the Christmas Mountains are about 6,000 feet high. The terrain
is mostly desert. The encumbrances on the land restrict almost any
development, including road construction.
According to the Land
Office, the School Land Board intends to make an award to the winning
bidder as early as the School Land Board's Nov. 6 meeting.
