Greenwire: The Christmas Mountains in Big Bend area of Texas won’t be transferred to the National Park Service, the state’s land boss said yesterday.
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has long resisted giving the land to the Park Service, in part because they would ban guns and hunting on the property. Instead, Patterson said he will sell to a private bidder or lease the land for hunting.
In February, Congress removed the ban on guns in national parks, but the commissioner is still leaning toward a private owner. Selling the land has been a controversial proposal because of concerns the public could be shut out of the mountains or the area would be developed for commercial use.
The wilderness was donated to Texas in 1991 and debate over what to do with it has been going on ever since. Texas businessman John Poindexter bid on the land three years ago and may still be interested, although he said the land has no economic value. He estimates it would cost nearly $1 million to clear invasive plants, fence it and restore the roads to make it fully accessible and added he might repopulate the area with elk and buffalo.
Big Bend National Park superintendent, William Wellman, also has a management proposal for the mountains and said he did not know the Park Service was out of the running for the land (Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Dallas Morning News, April 9). – JP