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.

Moratorium on Christmas Mountain Sale

After Monday's announcement from Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson that the land board would be accepting one of two bids received from private owners for the Christmas Mountains, Wednesday's meeting brought yet another delay.

The School Land Board postponed action on two bids for the Christmas Mountains Ranch near Big Bend National Park Tuesday and gave the National Park Service 90 days to make a deal for the 9,270 acres, apparently in response to public outcry over the sale.

State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wanted the three-member board, which he chairs, to accept the best proposal before giving the National Park Service time to match the offer. Patterson also had established a condition that firearms and hunting be part of any deal.

But the board left the bids pending and did not put conditions on its offer.

"There is no consensus except for the 90 days for the National Parks Service to put something on the table," Patterson said, after the board met in closed session to consider bids.

The delay is good news, but it doesn't mean the sale to the National Park Service is a done deal. Still, conservation groups that had lobbied hard to consider transferring the land to NPS ownership applauded the moratorium. Environment Texas, who submitted 6000 signatures to the board, issued this statement on the land board's decision to delay the sale:

Today's decision by the School Land Board to postpone the sale of the Christmas Mountains for ninety days is encouraging news. Yesterday, Commissioner Patterson announced that he would push the two other members of the School Land Board to accept one of the two private bids for the Christmas Mountains and gave an ultimatum to the National Park Service to change their policy on hunting or lose their right to try to add the property to Big Bend National Park. That did not happen, so clearly the other two board members are not comfortable with this deal. We thank Todd Barth and David Herrmann for respecting the strong public opposition to this sale and for seeking out a better solution. We look forward to working with the School Land Board, the National Park Service, and Congress in the coming months to find a final solution that will keep the Christmas Mountains in public hands and that will maintain the integrity of Texas' word.