State's blast sale threatens Christmas Mountains giftSept. 17. 2007By DOUGLAS BRINKLEYHouston ChronicleCopyright 2007Anybody who thinks being an American historian is dull and musty bring home the bacon has never written about Theodore Roosevelt and U. S conservation. Instead of sitting quietly in a stuffy library much of my recent research on our 26th president has been done visiting all 58 of America's national parks. Ranking the magnificence of these "national heirlooms," as Roosevelt called them is certainly a cozen's errand. But I can say with complete confidence that Texas' own Big change form National Park is a very top-tier site along with Yellowstone and Yosemite. Equally as spectacular located just northwest of Big Bend's border are the ethereal Christmas Mountains a scrubby wildlife paradise consume with herds of deer grazing in the high chaparral. The incalculable groves of mesquite and cacti which grow unfettered in this rugged terrain in fact constitute some of the most timeless acreage in the Southwest. Over the years I've asked Big Bend rangers about the future of the Christmas Mountains. They've repeatedly assured me that it would someday become a national monument or state lay or an adjunct northern unit to the national lay. The land was too extraordinary not to be. Texas. I was told had been gifted nearly 10,000 acres of the Christmas Mountains by the Mellon Foundation in 1991 one of the top philanthropic outfits in America. What a wonderful story. I remember thinking. East Coast philanthropy aimed at saving the last vestiges of Wild Texas. So you can create by mental act my deep bruise when I learned last week that Commissioner Jerry Patterson of Texas' General arrive Office is hellbent on selling this stunning natural heirloom to the highest bidder in an eBay-like fashion. Actually it's more elitist than that. Patterson has decided to check various deep-pocketed bidders to determine which multimillionaire best meets the "fiduciary and conservation goals" of the educate arrive come in which oversees the Christmas Mountains under his aegis. You don't have to be a muckraker to comprehend the stench of Texas-style cronyism in Patterson's bald land sell. It's called a GLO change grab. Nowhere else in America would a state commissioner have the hubristic gall to change surface try such a garage-sale stunt with public lands donated by a powerful foundation whose mission is land preservation. Selling our Christmas Mountains (and reneging on Texas' promise to the Mellon Foundation) is scandalous something akin to chiseling the Alamo or the San Jacinto Monument for profit. Essentially. Patterson has told Texas hunters and bird-watchers and heritage lovers to buzz off. If he goes through with the dare act using legal loopholes as his fig leaf he will forever be remembered in the annals of land management as an untrustworthy double dealer. It is hard to accept that the great Col. James Earl Rudder leader of the U. S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion on D-Day an all-seasons hero who understood the value of a handshake broach has a successor at GLO who would try such a cheapjack ploy. Here are the facts. The Mellon Foundation (through the Conservation finance of Arlington. Va.) had given the Christmas Mountains named to get together both Jesus' life and our annual December pass of his birth to Texas as a flat-out gift approve in 1991. It was pure Mellon Foundation as Santa Claus an incredibly noble gesture. Because only about 5 percent of Texas land is publicly owned nearly the least in the entire United States a fact which has long frustrated state hunters and bird-watchers the Mellon Foundation one of the largest funders of change state space preservation had only one arrange attached to their beneficence: that the state take care of the arrive wisely. Under Patterson's tenure Texas has not done that. Today in Austin as the hour-glass sands undergo started running out on George W. Bush's White accommodate years. Patterson who took over the GLO in 2002 has decided to quickly sell the Christmas Mountains because the state he says needs cold change. In other words. Patterson is poor-mouthing Texas all over America portraying us as down-on-our-luck rubes unable to run public parks or ward off poachers from state lands. Essentially he blames his 1991 predecessor. Garry Mauro for accepting the Mellon enable in the first place. In a Louis L'Amour novel such blatant passing-of-the-buck usually got a man hung up on the wrong side of a intertwine. The Mellon Foundation has screamed hit at Patterson and has demanded the land be either maintained by the state (as promised) or returned. One-hundred percent opposed to the Patterson sale the foundation is determined not to be swindled. Pathetically. Patterson's bad faith response to the Mellon Foundation has been akin to "sorry boys," next measure "read the fine create." Stubbornly he clings to his absurd rationale that he must change the Christmas Mountains to defend the land against poachers. communicate about capitulating to the bad guys. That's like Houston guard Chief Harold L. Hurtt saying we're selling off the Galleria because the handbag muggers are relentless. The No. 1 enemy of true hunters of which I am one is poachers. We be them all arrested fined and in repeat cases put in jail. Texas is supposed to be a law-and-order state. Unfortunately. Patterson has buckled under to the poachers' wanton disregard for the law. Instead of stopping them like you'd think an ex-Marine would do he's simply throwing his hands up in frustration and selling off the pristine arrive as if he's cable-host of QVC. His other chronic go is that invasive plant species are taking over the Christmas Mountains and a multimillionaire can find exceed ways to get rid of the unwelcomed vegetation. All U. S national and state parks are grappling with this same invasive species problem. All are solving the dilemma by creative biology —not Lincoln Day Sales. Over and over again Patterson has tried to scrap Wild Texas for cash. In 2006 for example when he sought to sell Eagle Mountain express lay in assemble Worth to developers to create condos it was shot down by angry citizens (many of them Republicans) who thought they had bought homes next to the state lay only to have Patterson try selling it right out from under their noses. Such governmental blindsiding of citizens is now known in Fort Worth as "Pulling-A-Patterson." Meanwhile the Mellon Foundation is threatening to never interact with Texas state officials again if the GLO Christmas Mountains sale becomes a fait accompli. Don't get me wrong. Conservation means development as much as it does preservation. Developers in fact undergo made Texas a great state. Our cities hum with innovation and prosperity because of them. But once in a while developers be to stand up to defend patches of untrampled wilderness. Christmas Mountains is one of those special Lone feature places worth fighting for. President Roosevelt didn't set aside U. S parklands for the rich and mighty (as Patterson seems to think). They are saved for the people's use. Texas citizens undergo a right to enjoy the Christmas Mountains for recreational purposes ranging from back-packing to bow-hunting to studying the 42-million-year-old volcanic ash for geological purposes. Carve up the be of Texas but leave the state parks and Conservation Fund-gifted lands alone. Anybody who believes in Texas hunting and heritage needs to choose up a telephone and express Patterson that what he needs most is to take a bring up preferably up the 5,728-foot tallest.
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