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FAR WEST TEXAS – Hikers, campers and guns are now allowed on the Christmas Mountains Ranch.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson last week granted a permanent easement opening the state-owned property to public access via the mile-long contiguous boundary with Big Bend National Park. It’s the first time the public has been able to access the 9,269-acre tract since a conservation group donated it to the General Land Office in 1991.

Following months of public outcry, the School Land Board called off a sale of the property to private bidders earlier this year, so the National Park Service could submit a proposal for acquiring and managing the land as part of Big Bend. That proposal was submitted in January but has yet to be considered by the School Land Board.

“With our easement, the Christmas Mountains are open to Big Bend National Park visitors,” Patterson said in a statement. “It’s exactly the same access that would be allowed if the National Park Service owned the tract.”

There are a few differences, though, between how the land will be managed under Permanent School Fund ownership.

For one, Patterson has allowed guns in the Christmas Mountains.

“Imagine that—accessible through Big Bend, yet it protects Texans’ Second Amendment rights,” he said.

Big Bend spokesman David Elkowitz said the park’s policy prohibiting firearms hasn’t changed.

“People are allowed to hike up to the boundary now,” he said, “but you’re still not allowed to have a loaded firearm in the national park.”

Earlier this year Patterson proposed opening the Christmas Mountains for hunting during this fall’s dove and quail season. That plan is still in the works, but how that hunting would be managed has yet to be decided, land office spokesman Jim Suydam said.

There have also been no rules set up to manage camping, hiking or fires now that public access is allowed, according to Suydam.

“There’s never really been a large demand for public access out there,” he said. “So we don’t anticipate there will be a large influx of campers to worry about.”

For the past four years, the property has been leased and managed by The Christmas Mountains Association, a Terlingua-based group of neighboring property owners. Earlier this month the group decided to renew their lease, according to a press release.

With the easement in place, Patterson has said there are two barriers to a park service acquisition.

“The property needs a long-term federal funding commitment for care and maintenance and a designation that will respect the Second Amendment and allow public hunting,” a land office press release states.

The commissioner recently sent his deputy Trace Finley to Washington D.C. to discuss those issues with members of Congress and park service officials, Suydam said.

The park service proposal suggests private donations could fund the Christmas Mountains acquisition, which Patterson opposes. The park service would also prohibit hunting on the land, unless it is designated by special legislation as a National Preserve, according to their management proposal posted on the GLO website.

The property would be one-percent of the park’s acreage if acquired, has no public road access and can support very few game animals. High-powered rifles could pose a safety threat to neighboring landowners, and managing a hunting program would be costly, the proposal states.

Big Bend visitors wanting to access the Christmas Mountains should consult park headquarters for information on how to best get there, Elkowitz said.

In a related matter, the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Land & Resource Management will be holding a hearing on May 5 on their interim charge to review real estate transactions engaged in by the General Land Office and the School Land Board, including the canceled Christmas Mountains Ranch auction.

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