Christmastime for Big Bend

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has made good on his promise to allow better access to the Christmas Mountains Ranch, the remote stretch of West Texas maintained by the General Land Office that he had originally planned to sell to private owners. After rejecting two private bids for the property on Feb. 5, he ordered staff to draft a permanent easement between the 9,269-acre stretch of arid backcountry and neighboring Big Bend National Park: This allows visitors to the park to walk straight across onto the range. On April 7, Patterson signed the easement and sent a copy to park Superintendent Bill Wellman.

Calling the step "a victory for the public will," Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger said, "Think back to last September, when it looked like it was going to be sold off, and now it's open to the public." Access has always been a core issue with this remote property. Only 1 mile of the range's 19-mile boundary adjoins Big Bend, the rest being surrounded by private owners. But the easement gives hikers and campers a new route into the range through the back end of the park. "This hasn't changed a lot from our standpoint, because you were always allowed to hike to the border," said Big Bend's public information officer, David Elkowitz. "The main change is on their end."

The easement is seen by many as an incremental step toward eventually adding the range to the park. A sale to the National Park Ser­vice is supported by many groups, including the Conservation Fund, which originally donated the land to Texas. But the sticking point remains Patterson's commitment to allowing hunting on the property. While the NPS does allow limited hunting on a handful of tracts nationwide, its standard policy is no guns in parks. Patterson, a gun-rights advocate, has pushed for NPS to allow hunts there if it takes ownership or to change its overall policy (unlikely, since seven former NPS national directors, including President George W. Bush appointee Fran Mainella, recently sent a letter to the Department of the Interior opposing any rule change). Patterson's alternative is transferring it to another federal agency, such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or U.S. Forest Service, that allows hunting on its property.