The National Park Service has submitted a management plan to the Texas General Land Office for the Christmas Mountains. The Park Service is proposing it acquire the Christmas Mountains and incorporate it into the park. It is an excellent plan.

As Chairman of the School Land Board, Jerry Patterson should place the plan on the board’s agenda where he and the other two board members can consider the park’s sound proposal.

In 1991 the General Land Office accepted the Christmas Mountains with numerous conservation easements, including a provision that the GLO would first seek the permission of the Conservation Fund before transferring the property to anyone other than Texas Parks and Wildlife or the National Park service. Commissioner Patterson now says he considers the provision invalid and “unenforceable.” Rather than ask for the Attorney General to decide the matter, we offer some West Texas advice: in Texas, a promise and a handshake are accepted as sign of integrity. When the state of Texas accepted the gift the state agreed and promised to honor all the conservation easements, not just some of them. When then  GLO Commissioner Gary Mauro wrote the Conservation Fund in 1991 he was “delighted” to accept the gift and  “that the ownership of this property can only be transferred from the Permanent School Fund to either National Park Service or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department,” he meant it.

Commissioner Patterson has said he won’t sell the property to the NPS because of the ban on hunting and the possession of firearms. This ban was in place when the GLO accepted the property. This was not an issue when the GLO accepted this gift nor should it be an issue now.

Out here, we don’t want revisionist interpretations of an agreement on which the state gave its word. It is time the state live up to its promise to the donor, The Conservation Fund and offer the land to the Park Service.

Recently, Patterson said that his goal  “is to accept the option that provides the best perpetual public access and the best stewardship for this property.”

The mission of the National Park Service is “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

By offering the Christmas Mountains to the NPS, Jerry Patterson and the School Land Board can simultaneously honor the agency’s promise to the Conservation Fund, and provide perpetual public access and the best stewardship, by allowing public enjoyment unimpaired for future generations.

Mr. Patterson, the eyes of Texas and the nation are upon you: do the right thing, place the matter before the School Land Board and vote to accept this fine proposal from the National Park Service.