For what is basically a tract of unreachable scrub in the middle of nowhere, there’s been a lot of public anger over the plan by the Texas General Land Office to sell off the Christmas Mountains. The School Land Board, which holds the land, is scheduled to meet Tuesday to announce whether the sale was to go ahead.
Now, in tones that would make a supermarket tabloid editor blush for its hyperbole, the GLO has put out a press release saying that Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson will make “a surprise announcement” on Monday, in which he will “expose details” on the sale. Which either means they’re going to keep them in public hands, or hand it over to the NRA for target practice. Bizarrely, the second option may be more likely.
Patterson had been the main advocate for putting the land into private hands. But because of his sketchy logic (the determined gun advocate wasn’t prepared to give it to any agency that wouldn’t allow hunting on it) he has faced vocal opposition from well, everybody. There’ve been calls to delay or even terminate the sale from state reps Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, and Donna Howard, D-Austin, from Big Bend National Park, eco-groups Sierra Club and Environment Texas, and land donors the Conservation Fund and the Mellon Foundation.
This article appears in November 2 • 2007.
