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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Lyons Admits Free '02 UU Bar Hunt
By Phil Parker
Journal Staff Writer
New Mexico Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons hunted on UU Bar Ranch in 2002, but he said there is no connection between that half-day hunt seven years ago and a series of land swaps currently proposed between the State Land Office and four private ranches in White Peak area, including UU Bar Express.
Bidding on the second of the four proposed swaps closes today.
The Journal had asked previously whether Lyons was given a free hunt at the UU Bar, which currently charges more than $8,000 for hunting trips, according to its Web site. Critics of the proposed land swaps had brought up the allegation that Lyons had hunted for free on the ranch.
Lyons' office said he hadn't. But last week Lyons said he now recalled that he did hunt there with his friend Brad Kelley, who owned the UU Bar in 2002.
Some months later, Kelley and Lyons proposed trading state trust land in the White Peak area near the UU Bar — the same area where the four-way swap is currently proposed — for the Dawson Ranch in central Colfax County, which Kelley also owned. Lyons denied any connection between his relationship with Kelley and that proposed deal.
Lyons said last week that he didn't pay for the 2002 hunt. “Brad Kelley never sold a hunt (to anyone), period,” Lyons said. “I even said to him, 'Maybe I ought to give you some money for this,' and he wouldn't take it. That's just the way he was.”
Kelley had contributed $1,000 to Lyons' 2002 race for land commissioner, the first time Lyons, a state senator, ran for the office.
After the Dawson Ranch swap was proposed in 2003, it ran into a buzz saw of criticism from Gov. Bill Richardson and White Peak-area hunting enthusiasts, many of whom also oppose the current swap proposal.
Lyons said at that time that he would return Kelley's contribution. The Dawson Ranch swap was shelved in mid-2003.
Lyons said last week he now remembers stopping at UU Bar in 2002 when he was on his way to Colorado to attend the funeral of his friend's son.
“I honestly forgot,” Lyons said.
Richardson also opposes Lyons' current proposal to swap trust lands for private land owned by four area ranch owners, including the UU Bar Express, now owned by Robert Funk.
When he bought the UU Bar in 2006, Funk owned several other ranches in Oklahoma and South Dakota, where he was in the cattle seed-stock business. He also was chairman of the Federal Reserve of Kansas City.
In a statement issued in mid-November, on the same day the New Mexico Wildlife Federation staged a protest of the swap in front of the Land Office, Richardson said, “I'm particularly concerned about the process by which this swap apparently has been arranged — namely, a behind-the-scenes deal with virtually no public input or notification, sealed bids, and inadequate opportunity for examination.”
Lyons, a Republican, said the deal has been open to the public throughout the negotiation process and that legal notices were posted in newspapers.
“The governor was saying that because he's in a wreck,” Lyons said. “He's wants to divert attention from his mess — his deficit.”
On Nov. 29, rancher David Stanley made the only bid on 7,206 acres of state trust land. As his part of the proposed four-way swap, Stanley will give the state 3,336 acres of his land. The land office is reviewing that deal.
Lyons said that according to appraisals paid for by the ranchers involved, the state should net land of greater value in the swap. But hunters and the Wildlife Federation oppose the swaps because, they say, the state will be giving away prime elk habitat in exchange for grassland. They also say the swaps will benefit ranchers, who can make thousands of dollars marketing guided trophy elk hunts.
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