Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson plans to announce the deal today for the 9,269-acre tract next to Big Bend National Park. Patterson once considered selling the property to a private owner but withdrew that idea under fierce criticism from environmentalists who wanted it to stay in public hands.

As previously reported in the American-Statesman, the commissioner has said he first had floated the idea to shift control of the tract from his office to Sul Ross State University, a Texas State System campus based in Alpine, during a chat in 2010 with state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine.

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