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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

Gun Held to Big Bend’s Head

The debate over the Christmas Mountains in west Texas has a cast of characters that a writer could only dream of concocting: A pistol-packing land commissioner, the Unabomber’s brother, a wealthy philanthropist, the editor of Ronald Reagan’s diaries, a bird named after Satan, narco-traffickers and coyote immigrant smugglers, an errant cartographer, and of course, a big herd of muledeer.

Here’s how they all fit together. The Christmas Mountains are a ruggedly beautiful mountain range adjacent to Big Bend National Park and are flourishing with muledeer, foxes, coyotes, mountain lions, badgers, squirrels, snakes, lizards, and lots of birds, including the Lucifer Hummingbird. They are so nice a place that the man who turned in the Unabomber to the FBI - his brother David Kaczynski – once lived in the mountains.

The property was donated to the state of Texas back in 1991 by the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Conservation Fund. The groups bought and protected the land in order to protect the viewshed of Big Bend. While the hope of the donors was that the Christmas Mountains would be “for use as and inclusion in a nature park, wildlife refuge, recreational area or similarly designated use area,” instead the state of Texas did basically nothing with it for sixteen years.

Enter Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Patterson, a former Marine who carries a .22 pistol in his boot, is now trying to auction off the publicly-owned Christmas Mountains to the highest bidder. He argues that the General Land Office (GLO) is not in the parks business and that the Christmas Mountains are better off in other hands – private hands. This despite the fact the gift deed (attached) clearly requires GLO to get the express permission from the donors if they try to sell to anybody other than the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department or the National Parks Service. Patterson claims that provision is unenforceable so he’s ignoring it.

Such reneging on Texas’ word so enraged the editor of Ronald Reagan’s diaries, historian Douglas Brinkley, that he penned an editorial blasting Patterson for such an “unmanly” move. Brinkley wrote: “If he goes through with the brazen act, using legal loopholes as his fig leaf, he will forever be remembered in the annals of land management as an untrustworthy double dealer.”

The Mellon Foundation was none too happy either, writing that "the state (should) not look to the R.K. Mellon Foundation for any future help" if the land is sold to a private buyer.

Despite a torrent of bad press and thousands of e-mails, letters and phone calls from outraged Texans and legislators asking him to stop, Patterson moved ahead with his plan to sell the property at the Sep. 18th meeting of the School Land Board (made up of Patterson and appointees of Governor Perry and Attorney General Abbott).

Among the bidders were John Poindexter, who gained notoriety two years ago when he tried to buy a big portion of Big Bend Ranch State Park, and Louis Waters, the retired chairman and chief executive of trash giant Browning-Ferris Industries and BFI International, who stated clearly in his bid that “Under no circumstances would we open the Christmas Mountains to the public.”

But things didn’t turn out as Patterson planned – sticking to his guns, selling the property and getting the whole mess over with. It turns out their map of the property was screwed up, so they were forced to reject all the bids. Rather than gracefully bow out at that point, the School Land Board brazenly moved forward with their scheme and immediately put out a request for new bids.

The Conservation community was heartened that at least we had two more months to rally public support and identify a solution that kept the land in public hands, as per the donors’ (and quite a few Texans) wishes. And a solution we did find.

On October 12, the Superintendent of Big Bend National Park (BBNP), William Wellman, wrote Land Commissioner Patterson asking him for a delay in the auction, to allow time for the National Park Service to "re-evaluate the feasibility of adding the Christmas Mountains to the park " Hooray! Big Bend National Park, which in the past had (along with Texas Parks and Wildlife) been forced to turn down management of the Christmas Mountains due to a lack of funds, was now stepping in to save the day.

But not so fast. The National Park Service doesn’t allow concealed hand guns or hunting on their property, and that doesn’t suit Jerry Patterson (author of the state’s concealed hand gun law), so he refuses to sell the property to them (yes, sell – Patterson won’t give it to them, even though it cost the state nothing to acquire). Patterson also argues that Big Bend National Park is a dangerous place, overrun with narco-traffickers and coyote immigrant smugglers.

If Patterson wants to change those policies, he should call his Congressman, not hold the Christmas Mountains hostage just to spite the Park Service. We can’t afford to piss off the philanthropists who donate park land to Texas. After all, the state of Texas hasn’t funded a major park acquisition program since 1967, so we rely on such private donations of land (and some of the donated lands do allow hunting, so it’s a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face).

While it doesn’t look like Patterson is going to back down, he is only one of three votes on the School Land Board, the body which will decide what to do with the Christmas Mountains. The other two members are appointees of Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Environment Texas has launched a petition to Gov. Perry and Attorney General Abbott asking them to direct their appointees to stop the sale of the Christmas Mountains. Perry has intervened before, helping stop the sale to developers of Eagle Mountain Lake State Park in Fort Worth. At a parks summit in Austin this weekend, the Austin American-Statesman quoted Governor Perry saying "Our national parks ... are such an important part of Texas. They provide the absolute perfect setting for a family."

Only about 5% of Texas land is publicly owned and according to a study by Texas Tech, "Texans are becoming increasingly frustrated about the lack of access to lands to experience nature". Selling off places like the Christmas Mountains moves in the wrong direction.

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