Share on LinkedIn

MULESHOE, Texas (KCBD) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a plan to expand the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge’s acquisition boundary to 7 million acres.

The boundary encompasses 14 counties in West Texas and five in Eastern New Mexico.

Within it, the service aims to deliver permanent conservation of up to 700,000 acres of land for the benefit of wildlife.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in 1935.

It was selected for its three saline lakes, which host ducks, geese and sandhill cranes during the winter.

Jude Smith, the refuge manager, believes the service can better protect the future of these migratory birds and other species through expansion.

“They have to have stopovers and places to be their entire life cycle and these areas provide them all refuges provide some if not all sanctuary for migratory birds,” Smith said.

Under the plan, land within the acquisition boundary can only be purchased from willing sellers.

One method is “fee title” in which the federal government acquires most or all rights to the property.

The other - a conservation easement - in which the landowner retains ownership but sells certain rights.

“And if they don’t want to sell it all the way up to the time before they sell it’s fine, we are used to it. And we only pay what a fair market value brings for a property,” Smith said.

This plan could take 30-to-40 years to complete.

Once the land is purchased, parts of it will go public, either for hunting, hiking, camping, or bird watching. That’s something Smith believes will benefit local economies.

“A study done, I want to say in 2014, showed that for every federal dollar spent here on the refuge returns close to 7 dollars to the local communities, so there’s also the potential for local economies to see a boost,” Smith said.

However, not everyone is on board.

American Stewards of Liberty, a property rights organization based in Austin, believes it’s a direct attack on local economies.

“The federal government does not pay taxes, so the lands that the government takes over are not going to contribute to the tax base. That’s going to be a hit on the local economies,” Margaret Byfield, executive director for ASL, said.

Byfield says this will make it harder for area counties to pay for schools, hospitals, and roads, resulting in higher taxes.

In addition to impacting local economies, Byfield argues some landowners could see the value of their property plummet.

“Conservation easement which is the other tool that they want to use, nationally reduce the value of the land by 40 percent,” Byfield said.

Lastly, Byfield says those who choose to undergo conservation easement may be subject to federal investigations if there are any violations.

“The refuge manager can turn that over to the federal wildlife officer. If compliance is not met then he can initiate criminal charges against that landowner, so the landowners need to understand that they are not going to be working with their county sheriff,” Byfield said.

In the end, Byfield believes this is not in the best interest of Texans and goes against what the founding fathers intended.

“Once you have been there and been under this kind of control, it’s really not the path that Texans want to take. Texans are strong because we own the property,” Byfield said.

The project will be funded using the Land & Water Conservation Fund as well as money raised from duck stamps.

The Lamb County judge tells KCBD that his county, along with Bailey County, are working to form a commission to further study the plan.

American Stewards of Liberty is holding a meeting in Littlefield on July 25.

KCBD reached out to Lubbock Congressman Jodey Arrington for a statement. On June 28, he released the following:

“I have two major concerns about a ‘voluntary’ public land expansion by the federal government: I don’t believe this is a good use of taxpayer dollars; and, there’s no such thing as a ‘voluntary’ government program.

I have shared my serious concerns with the Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, am in close communication with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and will fight to defend West Texas against even a hint of federal overreach.”