February 9 Update: Christmas Mountains Preserve has been saved, at least for now. Grateful thanks to everyone in participated in the effort to save it. Austin American-Statesman story
November 6 Update: The School Land Board has voted to postpone the sale for ninety days to give the National Park Service time to prepare an offer to acquire the mountains. For more information: Sale of Christmas Mountains Delayed: on the Dallas News web site.
Houston Audubon is very concerned about the proposed sale of the Christmas Mountains Preserve. The Preserve consists of over 9,200 acres of Chihuahuan Desert habitat, contiguous to Big Bend National Park. Houston Audubon recommends you write a letter and/or participate in the online petition found below, asking to stop the sale. The property could be sold as early as November 6, so please act without delay.
The property was donated to the state in 1991 by the Virginia-based Conservation Fund and the Pennsylvania-based Richard King Mellon Foundation on the condition that it remain protected from development. The state was bound by deed restrictions and could not sell the land without the approval of the fund. A spokesman for the Mellon Foundation states that if the sale goes through, the state should not look to their foundation for any future help. In the past they have donated many thousands of acres to state parks and wildlife, such as the approximately 40,000 acres in the Chinati Mountains.
The National Park Service has recently begun to show an interest in acquiring the property, but Patterson refuses to give them time to make their proposal. "As he has stated in the past, Commissioner Patterson ... would not be willing to sell the Christmas Mountains to the National Park Service if it would mean that there would never be public hunting allowed on the property," Jim Suydam, Patterson's spokesman, said in a statement. The land is loaded with restrictions. However, Patterson purportedly stated that the deed restrictions were probably unenforceable.
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