Texas land official backs down on Christmas Mountains

[Ay Chihuahua!]

Associated Press

AUSTIN — The state land commissioner blocking a proposal to transfer the Christmas Mountains to the National Park Service because he wants to permit hunting on the land appears ready to let the transaction proceed, documents show.

In a letter addressed to the superintendent of Big Bend National Park, State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wrote that he has "instructed my staff to work with your agency ... to work through these issues and secure the necessary funding for the transfer of the Christmas Mountains to the National Park Service."

The letter was obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a story in today's editions.

Patterson, chairman of the School Land Board, has so far declined to bring up for board consideration a park service proposal to add the property to Big Bend National Park. A fierce gun-rights advocate, Patterson wants a federal agency that will allow hunting, which is generally prohibited on National Park Service lands. Patterson has also previously indicated willingness to selling the land to a private bidder to maintain hunting rights.

The property in question is about 9,200 acres of rugged wilderness, with a mile-long border with Big Bend. It was donated to Texas by the Virginia-based Conservation Fund in 1991. The land was given to Texas with the understanding that the National Park Service of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department would take over if the state lost interest in the property.

The letter also outlines Patterson's concern that transferring the property to the park service would prohibit hunting in the Christmas Mountains. Noting that President Bush issued an executive order in September calling for an "expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities" by federal agencies, Patterson requested the park service designate the land as a national preserve "so that opportunities for public hunting would be made available and that state firearm and hunting laws are respected," he wrote.

The apparent softening of Patterson's position was met with skepticism by Big Bend National Park Superintendent William Wellman.

"I may be a little more optimistic than I was before, but that's still not very optimistic," Wellman said.

Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, said Patterson's letter represents a step forward.

"I consider it a good sign," Kramer said. "It does indicate a more cooperative stance by Commissioner Patterson to the National Park Service and their proposal." 

Found here.

[SHANEA]

 

and that's no April Fools Joke either.  Unless, the wire service picked up on the posting from yesterday...   

Interesting comments on that story...

[uh_clem]

  Hopefully it's not an April Fool's prank and Patterson will follow through.   

[xseption]

I am just waiting for Patterson to show up at the SA bender this weekend ... I believe he was invited

~ edd

[Ay Chihuahua!]

I am just waiting for Patterson to show up at the SA bender this weekend ... I believe he was invited

~ edd

I heard that too.  I also heard that Sen. Whitmire may be there to rebut Patterson. 

[SHANEA]

NOTE:  This story was published on 04/01/2008 and does NOT appear to be an April Fools Joke.
Legit. news source, legit. link, etc.  This is from the Big Bend Gazette.

Patterson Tells Park Service: No Guns, No Deal – Create a National Preserve

I checked the GLO website and found no new news releases, editorials, etc.

Fort Worth Star Telegram - Letter opens door to Park Service transfer of Texas' Christmas Mountains

Latest State Headlines from the AP: Land boss to allow move of Christmas Mountains to park service

Sierra Club on the Christmas Mountains - PDF - Page 13

Austin American Statesman - Land boss to allow move of Christmas Mountains to park service

[SHANEA]

I am just waiting for Patterson to show up at the SA bender this weekend ... I believe he was invited

~ edd

I heard that too.  I also heard that Sen. Whitmire may be there to rebut Patterson. 

Obama and Clinton and McCain will all be there for a free for all to debate the Christmas Mountains.  Bill Clinton will play his sax at 6pm.  I also heard Gov Perry and the Lt. Gov, and the Speaker of the House will be there too.  Hutchison will make an announcement that she is running for Governor.  George and Laura Bush do send their regrets, but Cheney will be there along with his lovely daughter. 

Unfortunately, I won't be there.

[Ay Chihuahua!]

Tuesday, Apr 8, 2008
Posted on Sun, Apr. 06, 2008
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson does it one way: his own



By JAY ROOT
Star-Telegram staff writer
AUSTIN -- He carries a gun in his boot, likes the smell of burning diesel and observes "Confederate Heroes Day" like a religious obligation. He will ask but never beg for your vote, answer ridicule with scorn and dress down whiny liberals with a smile on his face.
So go ahead, critics, make Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson's day: Recruit an opponent, elect a new land commissioner or have him impeached. But don't count on him to yield. One. Inch.

"Over my dead body," the Republican wrote to General Land Office staffers last year when it was suggested he could use government condemnation powers to provide access to the storied Christmas Mountains in West Texas.

"Never trust them," he says of the "lying" reporters who cover him. Even average citizens can expect Patterson's wrath should they criticize his stewardship of publicly owned lands.

"You, sir, are the one that doesn't get it," Patterson wrote to one citizen who was angry over a controversial plan to sell off the Christmas Mountains to private interests. "In your narrow minded view only the 'government' can do what's right ... you are more inclined to have an open mouth than an open mind. I can detect you are a typical partisan."

Combative e-mails

The heated exchange was included in a batch of Patterson's e-mail records, given to the Star-Telegram after a lengthy battle that tested provisions of the Texas public information act. The Texas attorney general ordered Patterson to hand over most of them. Taken together, they offer a glimpse into the inner workings of perhaps the most colorful -- and combative -- Texan in statewide office today.

"I think he probably intimidates a lot of people," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who served with Patterson in the state Senate and considers him a friend. "He just goes at it full speed and full throttle, and if you get in his way you're probably going to get bruised."

Born in 1946, Patterson grew up in southeast Houston, where he and his buddies roamed the neighborhood with BB guns while his father worked in a nearby chemical plant. His mother juggled the duties of housewife and real estate agent.

"Proving once again that I grew up weird, when I was a kid I enjoyed it when we were driving behind a Houston bus -- loved the smell of diesel fumes," Patterson recently confessed in an e-mail to supporters of a program that helps governmental entities switch their fleets to clean-burning natural gas. "That might explain my thought processes as an adult."

Love of history

In the 1960s, while many young Americans were protesting the Vietnam War and marching for civil rights, Patterson was a student at Texas A&M University, where he earned a degree in history in 1969.

"We were all going into the armed forces," he recalled. "We didn't have much respect for those that were burning our flags, and that hasn't changed much."

Patterson later joined the Marines and ended up in Vietnam during the last six months of the war in 1975. His love of history and a long family tradition of military service strongly influence Patterson's staunchly conservative political views. He can trace his military heritage to the Civil War, when his great-grandfather, Cpl. James Monroe Cole, served in the Confederate Army. His father flew a B-24 Liberator in World War II, and his adult son, Travis, has pulled two tours of duty as a chopper pilot in Iraq.

In 1990, Patterson lost his first bid for a state Senate seat. Instead of conceding on election night, he announced he would run again two years later. Thanks to new district lines that favored Republicans, Patterson defeated Sen. Chet Brooks, D-Pasadena, in 1992.

Patterson was a strong advocate of term limits back then, and he made Brooks -- at the time the longest-serving member of the state Senate -- a poster boy for the idea. Patterson has since changed his mind about setting limits on how long politicians can serve.

"If you're an advocate of term limits, you're saying that voters are too stupid to make the right choice," Patterson said.

Brooks, who never returned to state elective office, laughed out loud when told that Patterson no longer supported term limits, but he said he had no bitter feelings. After Brooks' 1992 defeat, Patterson showed up at a post-election fundraiser aimed at helping the Democrat retire his campaign debts, Brooks recalled.

Concealed weapons

During his six years in the Senate, Patterson abolished the law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets and helped modernize home-equity lending practices in Texas. But his claim to fame was his sponsorship of the bill that gave Texans the right to carry concealed weapons. Besides giving him hero status among the Second Amendment crowd, Patterson's fierce advocacy of the gun-toting public has colored the way he sees his job as chief steward of millions of acres of state land.

Patterson has insisted, for example, that the federal parks system drop its ban on firearms to even become eligible to purchase the Christmas Mountains, donated to the state years ago by a land conservation group.

"Should I transfer 9,300 acres to an agency that ignores the Bill of Rights?" Patterson says. "I don't think so."

'Clueless' public

The proposal to sell off the Christmas Mountains sparked a huge public controversy, and thousands wrote Patterson urging him to keep it in government hands. Patterson said any private owner would have to promise never to develop the property -- and he unloaded on what he saw as an often "clueless" public.

"With your eloquence I'm not sure I would want you on my side," Patterson wrote to one angry critic. "I encourage you to vote against me, and to find an opponent and work very hard to get them elected." Some Texans who had stumbled upon Patterson's e-mail address seemed shocked to get a snarky reply from the land commissioner himself.

"State employees would probably be fired for such a rude response," wrote one Texan who corresponded with him. "You may want to work on improving your ability to inform people without insulting them." If he appears a bit prickly about criticism from the public, it pales in comparison to his battles with the press -- whom he blames for leaving Texans woefully uninformed.

Patterson once took out full-page ads in the Galveston Daily News, comparing the newspaper to communist propaganda mongers after it ran critical reports of agency programs.

Patterson, who often comments on Internet blogs about his agency, admits "uninformed" criticism both galls and entertains him. But he said it doesn't keep him up at night.

"Many would describe me as kooky, but I don't really care," he said. "If the voters disagree with what I'm doing, there's the next election, or there's impeachment. I do what I think is right, and I don't concern myself with public opinion."

The Jerry Patterson file

Born: Nov. 15, 1946, in Houston.

Education: History degree, Texas A&M University, 1969.

Military: Fought in Vietnam as a Marine; retired as lieutenant colonel from Marine Corps Reserve, 1993.

Politics: Republican state senator, 1993-99; Texas land commissioner, 2003-present.

Family: Married with four children

Quote: "If the voters disagree with what I'm doing, there's the next election, or there's impeachment. I do what I think is right, and I don't concern myself with public opinion."

[uh_clem]

Does he dress up whiny conservatives?

[Ay Chihuahua!]

http://www.votepatterson.com/