You may never have heard of the Christmas Mountains. They are located northwest of Big Bend National Park. A 9300-acre tract of land there was donated to the state of Texas in 1991 by the Conservation Fund and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Now Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wants to sell that land to private interests and the donors are upset, although they wouldn’t have any objection to it going to the National Parks Service, which may also be interested in it. But Mr Patterson is a strong Second Amendment advocate and he doesn’t like the National Parks Service because they don’t allow hunting on their property. Of course, not very many people will be able to hunt on the land anyway once it is in private hands.
You can read more about it here and here. There is a petition you can sign too.
Of course private owners can be good stewards. But Texas needs more public lands, not less.
Comments (3)
Sounds about par for the course. They could always have the land designated as a preserve. That will allow for hunting.
Thanks for pointing out the petition. This is just a disgusting act on the part of Jerry Patterson. In this instance people donated this land in trust for all of us and he wants to sell it off as a hunting preserve for a priveleged few–even though no hunting goes on there now.
Little known secret: the existing deed covenants have always allowed hunting permits to be issued. The GLO has never done that, so has been missed money for the Texas School Fund.
Patterson is talking out both sides of his mouth.