Christmas Mountains Will Not Be Sold to Private Bidders

Karen Brooks at the Dallas Morning News informs us that the School Land Board met today and rejected private bids for the Christmas Mountains. That decision paves the way for the transfer of the land to the National Parks Service.

Mike and Ramona Craddock, the private bidders, said they were disappointed but not surprised by the decision. They had offered $750,000 for the land, they said, and simply planned to hire a biologist to direct them on how best to preserve the land before opening it to the public for no profit.

Another bidder had sought to turn the 9,296 acres into a for-profit hunting ranch, among other uses.

There was no indication whether the second bidder referred to John Poindexter, but his name was frequently mentioned as one of the bids under consideration.

The board did not consider the NPS proposal at today's meeting, because it was submitted after the deadline for posting to the agenda. However, the decision to reject the private bids was supported by Patterson.

The unanimous decision by the three-member panel, which is lead by General Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, was a victory for advocates who had sought to keep the land next to the Big Bend National Park in public hands. The National Park Service is the only agency so far to propose a plan for managing the land. No more private bids will probably be considered, Mr. Patterson said.

Does this mean Patterson has capitulated? Maybe not.

Mr. Patterson also said he would open the land immediately to visitors and start working with state officials to open the range to dove and quail hunters.

So where does this leave us and what happens next?

The next step for the board is to either accept the NPS proposal, re-open the bidding process, or reject the NPS proposal and keep the land. They also must decide whether to donate the land to the agency or sell it. A lawyer for the board said the board would have to gain some proceeds from the land, since it belongs to a trust that funds public education.

Board members David Hermann and Todd Barth both said they would prefer the land stay in public hands, and hinted that they want it to be sold to the parks agency.

So there are still decisions that need to be made, and there is still the potential for controversy. Nonetheless, rolling back this egregious example of good ole boy cronyism sets the stage for preserving this magnificient piece of land in a manner consistent with the Conservation Fund's original intent. For that we are truly grateful that the land board yielded to its better angels.

Christmas Mountains Deal Imminent

According to Environment Texas, a decision on the fate of the Christmas Mountains is due next Tuesday. The group sent an email asking for signatures urging Texas School Land Board to accept the National Park Service’s offer to purchase the Christmas Mountains and add it to Big Bend National Park.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, the deal to be announced next week is likely to give conservation advocates their wish.

On Friday, the General Land Office, which controls the land and had put it on the auction block, released a proposal by the National Park Service to take over the land, which is adjacent to Big Bend. Patterson has repeatedly said that he opposes such a move because the national parks don't allow hunting.

The land office had received private bids last year worth $60 an acre that would have allowed hunting, although it's not clear how much public access would have been allowed by the private owners.

The NPS proposal says that the Christmas Mountains tract would be opened for day and overnight hiking. An old access route to an antenna on a 5,700-foot peak would be a "primary destination for remarkable vistas" for hikers and horseback riders. Should it be incorporated into the vast Big Bend National Park, the Christmas Mountains tract would amount to about one percent of the total acreage of the park.

The proposal pays special attention to hunting, which it says would not be allowed on the land. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a staunch supporter of gun rights, had said last year that he wanted hunting allowed on the land. But the National Park Service proposal says hunting access is difficult and that the deer population is low.

If this announcement signals an end to the wrangling over the Christmas Mountains, and places the land in the public realm as was the original intent, this is great news.

The Christmas Mountains is not the only tract of private land that the National Park Service would like to add to Big Bend. Nationwide, the NPS lists over 11,000 separate tracts comprising 1.8 million acres that it has designated for acquisition.

Unfortunately, the park service's budget for purchases is down from a high of $139 million in 1999 to $24 million in last year's budget. To put that in perspective, $24 million is about two hours funding for the Iraq war, or a little above the annual pay of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson.