[AGL] Fwd: Mountains near Big Bend to be sold off

[michele mason]

HELLO EVERYONE!  I'm guessing all our members "in the know" may have  
passed this around already—BUT, just in case, please scroll down to  
message. Its disconcerting to say the least.  michele

Begin forwarded message:


> From: Linnie Lively <lady_lively_the_elder at yahoo.com>

> Date: September 6, 2007 8:00:48 PM CDT

> To: joanbeaufort at hotmail.com

> Subject: Fwd: Mountains near Big Bend to be sold off

>

>

>

> Louanne Lasdon <louaust2001 at yahoo.com> wrote:Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007  

> 15:38:52 -0700 (PDT)

>> From: Louanne Lasdon <louaust2001 at yahoo.com>

>> Subject: Fwd: Mountains near Big Bend to be sold off

>> To: Linnie Lively <lady_lively_the_elder at yahoo.com>

>>

>> Note: forwarded message attached.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> ______________________________________________________________________ 

>> ______________

>> Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your  

>> story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.

>> http://sims.yahoo.com/ From: "Luke Metzger, Environment Texas  

>> Director" <LukeM at environmenttexas.org>

>> To: louaust2001 at yahoo.com

>> Subject: Mountains near Big Bend to be sold off

>> Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:08:27 -0500

>>

>> Hi Lynn; would you please get this out quickly? Thanks. L

>>

>> In 1991, two groups donated more than 9000 acres of land to the state  

>> of Texas to "be made available to the general public for hunting and  

>> other recreational uses." The land contained the ruggedly beautiful  

>> Christmas Mountains and is adjacent to Big Bend National Park.

>>

>> Now, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is auctioning off the land to  

>> private interests. He says he's doing it to raise money for the  

>> Permanent School Fund, but selling off Texas' natural heritage is a  

>> short-sighted and irresponsible way to fund our schools and a slap in  

>> the face to the land's donors.

>>

>> Tell Commissioner Patterson to stop the sale of the Christmas  

>> Mountains.

>>

>> https://www.environmenttexas.org/action/preserving-texas/christmas- 

>> mountains?id4=ES

>>

>> For more information, here's a recent article from the Fort Worth  

>> Star-Telegram:

>>

>> Donated land near Big Bend for sale

>> By R.A. DYER

>> Star-Telegram staff writer

>>

>> AUSTIN --Over the objections of some conservationists, a pristine  

>> mountain range adjacent to the Big Bend National Park has been put up  

>> for sale by the Texas General Land Office.

>>

>> The proposal follows other controversial proposed sales of  

>> state-owned wilderness areas to private interests, including last  

>> year's proposed General Land Office sale of 400 acres at Eagle  

>> Mountain Lake in Fort Worth, and the 2005 proposed Texas Parks and  

>> Wildlife Department sale of 46,300 acres at Big Bend Ranch State  

>> Park.

>>

>> Those properties ended up staying in government hands after public  

>> outcry: The Eagle Mountain Lake property went to the Tarrant Water  

>> District and the Big Bend tract remained in the state parks  

>> inventory.

>>

>> The latest transaction, however, continues on course.

>>

>> At issue is 9,269 acres containing the Christmas Mountains, which is  

>> next to the northwest corner of Big Bend National Park. The property  

>> was donated to the state in 1991 by the Virginia-based Conservation  

>> Fund and the Pennsylvania-based Richard King Mellon Foundation under  

>> the condition that it remain protected from commercial development.

>>

>> To benefit school fund

>>

>> It is not part of the parks system inventory, but rather is held for  

>> the Permanent School Fund, which finances public education, according  

>> to information from the General Land Office.

>>

>> The agency put the property up for auction last month and closed bids  

>> last week, Land Office spokesman Jim Suydam said.

>>

>> He said that the agency is not equipped to act as a steward for the  

>> land and that various encumbrances placed on it will prevent  

>> commercial development.

>>

>> "It's Commissioner [Jerry] Patterson's fiduciary duty to earn money  

>> on these lands -- it's an impeachable offense for him not to," said  

>> Suydam, explaining the decision to sell the land.

>>

>> But some conservationists are expressing dismay and say the Christmas  

>> Mountains should remain in public hands. They note that it was  

>> donated with the public in mind.

>>

>> "The entity donated this land for express purpose of providing public  

>> land," said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas. "When all  

>> the experts say we need more public lands, the state is moving in the  

>> direction of giving lands away to private interests."

>>

>> Suydam said the General Land Office offered the tract both to the  

>> National Parks Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department  

>> before putting it out to bid. But the cash-strapped National Parks  

>> Service and the state parks department both declined the property.

>>

>> The General Land Office later received six bids from the private  

>> sector, Suydam said. A special panel that includes Patterson will  

>> consider the bids in coming weeks, he said.

>>

>> Officials with the Conservation Fund and the Richard King Mellon  

>> Foundation, which donated the land to the state, have declined to  

>> comment.

>>

>> But in e-mail correspondence reported by the Austin  

>> American-Statesman, Richard King Mellon Foundation officer Mike  

>> Watson wrote that if the auction goes through "the state [should] not  

>> look to the R.K. Mellon Foundation for any future help."

>>

>> In another e-mail reported by the newspaper, Conservation Fund  

>> Executive Vice President Richard Erdman wrote that "it was the hope  

>> ... that this land would be made available to the general public for  

>> hunting and other recreational uses."

>>

>> Terry Ervin, a retiree who lives on 160 acres abutting the property,  

>> said that the Christmas Mountains reach about 6,000 feet in altitude  

>> and that the site includes some abandoned mines. He said the terrain  

>> is mostly desert, and with plenty of cactus -- but almost no water.

>>

>> "It's very beautiful to look at," Ervin said. "Basically, it's very  

>> rugged and dry. In the past it had some water wells with windmills to  

>> water livestock. ... And there is an artificial lake that is seasonal  

>> and sometimes it has water. ... It's got some unique Chihuahua desert  

>> vegetation."

>>

>> Use restrictions

>>

>> The encumbrances that will be permanently enforced on the land would  

>> restrict almost any sort of development, including the construction  

>> of roads, Suydam said. The office released documents showing that the  

>> encumbrances would allow construction only of a rudimentary building  

>> for a land manager and would prohibit use of any off-road vehicles.

>>

>> The encumbrances permit hunting, but with restrictions.

>>

>> As part of the bid process, the General Land Office also required  

>> potential buyers to submit land management plans

>>

>> Suydam said Patterson and the two other members of a panel known as  

>> the School Land Board could decide this month whether to accept one  

>> of the six bids or reject all of them.

>>

>> "The land does not need to be owned by the state to be considered  

>> managed -- the permanent encumbrances greatly limit [what you can do  

>> with] it," he said.

>>

>> *************end of article**************************

>>

>> Tell Commissioner Patterson to stop the sale of the Christmas  

>> Mountains:

>>

>> https://www.environmenttexas.org/action/preserving-texas/christmas- 

>> mountains?id4=ES

>>

>>

>> Sincerely,

>>

>> Luke Metzger

>> Environment Texas Director

>> LukeM at environmenttexas.org

>> http://www.environmenttexas.org

>>

>> P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this  

>> e-mail with your family and friends.

>>

>> ----------

>>

>> This message was sent to louaust2001 at yahoo.com. If you want us to  

>> stop sending you e-mail then follow this link -  

>> http://www.environmenttexas.org/action/unsubscribe - to a web page  

>> where you can remove yourself.

>>

>>

>

>

>

> U.S. Comptroller General David Walker was quoted 22 Aug 07 (see  

> Financial Times), comparing U.S. status to the end of the Roman  

> empire: (there are) "'striking similarities' between America's current  

> situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including 'declining  

> moral values and political civility at home, an overconfident and  

> overextended military in foreign lands, and fiscal irresponsibility by  

> the central government.' "

>

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