If there are a bunch of doves in the area it won't take them too long to find that there are a bunch of seeds on the ground after you cut.  In this case I would say you could wait as late as a week before you hunt.

The reason this looked strange is because you cut & paste from some other file, probably Microsoft Word. When you do this, those programs have a lot of invisible characters that make the document look "messed up" on a web page.

The solution, if you care, is to always cut and paste from the original document to "Notepad" which is a free utility on your computer. Notepad strips all the invisible characters from any file.

Then, you can paste to a website (ours or someone else), and you can format it how you like with this tool.

Hope this helps.

William,

Try this:

Cut and paste into Notepad, then cut and past into the forum.  Otherwise, just type directly into the forum.  If you are cutting from word or even your email it may transfer some unwanted formatting over to the forum.  Try that and let's see what happens. 

QuorumReport.com
Harvey Kronberg
November 6, 2007 

APPARENTLY LACKING THE VOTES FOR PRIVATE SALE OF CHRISTMAS MOUNTAINS, LAND BOARD GIVES PARK SERVICE 90 DAYS TO COME UP WITH OFFER

Patterson cites lack of consensus on Board

The School Land Board this afternoon formally adopted Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson’s proposal to give the National Park Service 90 days to come up with a proposal superior to a pair of private bids for the Christmas Mountains Ranch in Far West Texas.

The three-member board, however, chose to leave the two qualifying bids on the table for the 90-day period. That marks a shift from Patterson’s original plan to accept a single bid today and then allow the NPS to match that bid.

The significance of the move was not immediately clear. In a press avail yesterday, Patterson distributed what he said would be the motion he intended to present today to the Land Board. It included a motion to "award the bid which best meets the original conservation goals of the gift deed." He listed 12 criteria that a winning bid must contain, including plans to win local support, build a network of trails in the property, give youth organizations access and provide for non-commercial public hunts. The final proviso was to give the National Park Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department 90 days to exceed the private bid.

The motion made by board member Todd Barth only addressed that last criterion -- giving the National Park Service 90 days to present its proposal. TPWD was left out of the adopted proposal, a tacit acknowledgment that their continued involvement in the sale of the Christmas Mountains is highly unlikely. Barth and the third board member, David Herrman, did not talk to media after the meeting to explain their positions. Patterson would only say that the board did not have consensus on the issues surrounding the sale, including Patterson’s insistence that the NPS allow hunting in the Christmas Mountains.

Luke Metzger of Environment Texas said that he viewed the development as positive for opponents of Patterson’s plan to sell the 9,300-acre tract of land to a private entity without getting the approval of the group that originally gave the land to the state.

In public comments before the vote, every speaker supported leaving the Christmas Mountains Ranch in public hands instead of being sold to a private entity. Because the land is adjacent to the Big Bend National Park, most speakers argued that it made more sense to sell the land to the NPS. Patterson told members of the press after the vote that he was not swayed by the speakers’ comments.

"I take comfort from that, that a bid is not yet accepted," Metzger said. "Clearly, (Patterson’s) vote hasn’t changed but others may have different ideas."

It’s long become apparent that Patterson and his opponents have been talking past each other on this issue. Patterson is convinced that a private operator is the best choice for preserving, conserving and ensuring public access to the land. He interrupted the first speaker this morning to repeat his pitch on why he believes the private bids for the Christmas Mountains are superior to anything that NPS could propose. He broke into the testimony of several subsequent speakers to ask them if they would reconsider their stance if they knew the private bidders were committed to conserving the land.

Such assurance stems from an ideological position – the private sector is better equipped to manage most things better than the government. In an op-ed piece on the proposed sale penned in September, Patterson wrote, "More than any other American, (Ronald) Reagan understood that government is not the solution to the problem – in many cases it is the problem. The Christmas Mountains are no exception."

While private conservation of land is by no means a new concept, Patterson has come up against one major sticking point. The original deed that gave the Christmas Mountains to the state in 1991 stipulated that the original landowner, the Virginia-based Conservation Fund, must approve the sale of the land to anyone other than the NPS or the TPWD.

Patterson chose to cut the Gordian Knot by deciding that any requirement to get Fund approval for a sale amounted to prior restraint and was unlawful. The land is not well-served by keeping it under the stewardship of the General Land Office, he said. That’s because his agency cannot spend the money to provide proper upkeep and management of the land. Selling to a private bidder is important to the bigger goal of properly conserving the Christmas Mountains, he said.

"We can hang ourselves on the language of these five words," he said, or the state can take steps to conserve these lands in perpetuity.

Metzger and his counterparts in the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, though, are troubled by Patterson’s determination to ignore part of an agreement that allowed for the transfer of private lands to the public sector for the purpose of conserving the land. They fear a chilling effect in which other private philanthropic groups will be less likely to give land to the state of Texas.

Other speakers echoed that theme today, saying the state of Texas needs to keep its word. "If we made a promise, we should keep it," said Craig Nazor of Austin. "To say we won’t honor our promises because the other side can’t enforce it – to my mind, that is like a bully."

By this afternoon, Patterson was softening his stance, saying that he would seek the "support" – note the careful avoidance of the word "approval" – of the Conservation Fund for selling the land to a private bidder if the NPS does not put forth a good proposal.

"As promised, I will seek the Conservation Fund's support for this plan. And I believe I'll get it. I look forward to meeting with Fund officials and discussing the future of the Christmas Mountains," Patterson said in a statement released this afternoon. "The Conservation Fund is committed to conservation. So am I. We need to work together on this issue, not against each other. Conservation is conservation, no matter whose name is on the title. Whether by a private owner or the Park Service, the Christmas Mountains will be preserved for future generations of Texans."

The issue of hunting, though, remains unresolved and could still undermine any attempt by NPS to put forward an acceptable proposal. Patterson is insisting that the NPS allow hunting in the Christmas Mountains as part of any proposed sale. NPS officials have made it clear in recent news accounts that they can’t allow hunting in the Christmas Mountains despite Patterson’s argument that they have the discretion to do so.

One thing is now for sure. The Christmas Mountains will spend at least one more Christmas in Jerry Patterson’s custody.

South Texas Plains

Deer should be fat this year and fawn crops should be 50 percent or better, even on marginal ranges, according to TPWD district biologist Joe Herrera in Pleasanton. He reported antler quality should also be excellent this fall.

“The deer are not moving much due to the good habitat conditions, and are eating very little supplemental feed,” said Herrera. “With the great range conditions consisting of tall grasses and green brush it may be difficult to hunt this season.”

With the high fawn survival biologists are expecting this fall, managers will have their work cut out for them trying to keep the deer population at healthy levels before the next drought hits.