by John Waters
Publisher

Once again, the Texas General Land office has cancelled the scheduled auction of the 9,269 acre Christmas Mountains tract located in south Brewster County by rejecting all six bids received for the property. The two high bids were $652,000 made by the Louis Waters family of Houston, and $509,828 made by John Poindexer of Houston.

The GLO did not reject the bids due to inadequacy, but cited errors in the map used during the bid process as the reason for rejecting the standing bids. The GLO said it would re-bid the property for the meeting of its School Land Board meeting in November.

“This is a fortunate mistake,” said Jerry Patterson, GLO Commissioner, “because it will give Texans an opportunity to become more informed about why this land should be conveyed to a good steward. There’s a lot of willful ignorance – driven by blind partisan rancor – related to this sale. I think once Texans understand that conservation and public benefit will result from this sale they’ll support it.”

The land sale had proceeded with scant notice outside the Big Bend until mid-September when the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle reported that the original donors on the land, the Mellon Foundation and the Conservation Fund, had communicated to the GLO their opposition of the sale.

In documents obtained under the Public Information Act, the Chronicle reported, that Conservation Fund Executive Vice President Richard Erdmann wrote in a July 16 letter to Patterson: “We feel strongly that the state’s intended sale of the Christmas Mountains sends the wrong message to foundations like Rick King Mellon, one of the few in the country which have focused substantial resources on land and water conservation to assure perpetual protection of these assets in the public domain…. Should this sale proceed, the Richard King Mellon Foundation has informed us that it would find it very difficult for it to consider the state as a potential beneficiary of any future conservation contributions on its part.”

This disclosure led to maelstrom of negative attention throughout the state, with many editorials chastising the GLO’s poor judgment and bad ethics: “Texas a grinch for putting Christmas Mountains up for sale;” “West Texas ranch should stay public;” “State’s fire sale threatens Christmas Mountains gift;” and “State land sale: Forget about it.”

Despite the outpouring of resistance, the GLO is resolute in its intention to sell the property.

The General Land Office was established in 1836, by the Republic of Texas Congress, shortly after Texas won its independence from Mexico. The GLO was originally responsible for managing the public domain, and today it manages over 20 million acres of state land on behalf of the Permanent School Fund.

The GLO has a fiduciary responsibility to maximize returns on land it holds for the fund, and maintains that it must sell the Christmas Mountains as it is “unable to invest the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to fence the land to protect it from poachers and to restore it to its original, native state.”

While the GLO’s fiduciary responsibility to the school fund is well established, and the non-income producing nature of the Christmas Mountains indeed makes it a mismatch for the agency, claims of habitat degradation and poaching are less convincing.

Recent history

The GLO acquired the Christmas Mountains in 1991 when The Mellon Foundation provided funding to purchase the property and gift it to the state through The Conservation Fund of Arlington, Va. When the Conservation Fund deeded the land to the GLO, numerous restrictions were placed on the deed to insure –  in perpetuity – that no development would occur. In addition, any sale by the GLO would need the approval of the Conservation Fund.

In December 2005 when The Gazette reported on the first auction of the Christmas Mountains property scheduled for February 2006, we noted,  “A restriction from the original gift deed may doom the sale. When the Conservation Fund deeded the land to the GLO in 1991, it stipulated the GLO would need the Fund’s consent before the land could be transferred to any party other than the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, or the National Park Service. Suydam confirmed that the GLO had contacted the Conservation Fund regarding the sale and had not yet received approval.”

The first auction was cancelled for unspecified reasons.

In January 2006, The Gazette reported the GLO was in communication with a conservation group; the GLO’s Suydam commented, “The fact that they [potential buyers] are a conservation group bodes well. It makes more sense for such a group to buy the land as it will come with all the restrictions.”

In a telephone interview with The Gazette in 2006, biologist David Riskind, who had recently toured the mountains said, “If you want to look at a piece of Chihuahuan Desert grassland in excellent condition, look there. The grassland community is excellent.”

The Current Situation

Now the GLO appears to be ignoring the deed restriction which stipulates the need for permission from the Conservation Fund; in an email, the GLO’s Suydam states, “No, the GLO needs no permission to sell.”

Suydam also confirmed that the GLO would not sell the property to the National Park Service: “The land office has offered to sell that land to NPS several times now. But yes, Patterson would insist on any buyer allowing public hunting.”

“The reality of the Christmas Mountains,” said Alida Lorio, Operations Manager for Terlingua Ranch, which abuts the Christmas Mountains, “is they have gotten so little use since the expiration of the hunting leases, it would surprise me if the grasses are not in excellent shape.”

Lorio added that she has continued the efforts to curtail poaching which the Ranch began in 1998 in conjunction with TPWD game wardens and Brewster County Sheriff Department. “We do everything to support the superb job the game wardens and deputies are doing,” added Lorio, and noted that there have been no known instances of poaching in the last four years.

The future

The Conservation Fund declined to comment on the issue of the Fund granting the GLO permission to sell the property, or any other aspect regarding the Christmas Mountains.

Bill Wellman, Superintendent of Big Bend National Park, said the NPS would accept the 9,000-acre property, under certain conditions: “If the land were offered as a donation, either by the state or a third party, we  would be interested, if 1) funds (federal or nonfederal) are available for the [Hazardous Materials] survey, 2) the congressional delegation would support a boundary expansion, and 3) Brewster County does not object to additional NPS land in the county.”

In September, Congressman Ciro Rodriguez sent GLO Commissioner Jerry Patterson a letter imploring him to postpone the land sale. “Not only do I think the proposed action by the General Land Office sets a poor precedent that potentially jeopardizes the conservation and well-being of the area,” wrote Rodriguez, “but I have also heard from constituents about their concerns regarding the state’s proposed sale of the land.”

State Senator Carlos Uresti told The Gazette “The grantor’s wish was that the Christmas Mountains would be restored and preserved in perpetuity. I want to work with Land Commissioner Patterson and all concerned parties to find a solution that reaches that aim, maintains the public trust, and encourages land owners to continue bequeathing their Texas property for the purpose of conservation.”

Brewster County Judge Val Beard said the county does not have a position on the Christmas Mountains.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Chief Operating Officer Scott Boruff said TPWD was recently approached informally by the GLO regarding the matter, yet the “property does not meet the strategic goals of the TPWD of acquiring either adjacent lands or in holdings.”

The department is currently seeking to add properties in various eco-regions throughout the state where it is under-represented, and with over 400,000 acr,es West Texas is “over-represented,” according to Boruff, and the Conservation Easements on the property would make it almost impossible to transform the property into a state park.

So, barring an act of God or Congress, or some other intervention, it seems the Christmas Mountains will again be offered for auction in November. At press time, the GLO did not have specific information regarding the new auction.

For information about the bidding process, contact the Texas General Land Office: 800-998-4456.