Anyone with a few million dollars can bid on 7,000 acres of mountainous state trust land in northeast New Mexico around a popular hunting spot called White Peak.

If no one else bids by 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Stanley Ranch likely will get it. Instead of paying cash to the State Land Office, however, the ranch owners will swap 3,300 acres of land they own nearby.

The proposed exchange and three others like it around White Peak have angered sportsmen who say the land commissioner is once again interfering with their prime elk-, deer-, turkey- and bear-hunting grounds. They are planning a protest at 1 p.m. today in front of the State Land Office, 310 Old Santa Fe Trail. "We're vehemently against this," said Ed Olona, 71, president of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation.

But State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons said the area — which he calls Whites Peak — is a long-running problem for the State Land Office, and the proposed land exchange is the best solution to consolidating the state trust lands. He said the swap will actually add two new public access roads.

"Whites Peak has been, and will continue to be, a source of conflict between landowners, sportsmen, enforcement agencies and the state until changes occur that address public and private interests in the area," Lyons said in a recent statement. "Trespassing, vandalism, theft and illegal off-road vehicle use in the Whites Peak area are rampant, and the site has become impossible to manage."

White Peak is a mixed bag of private and state trust lands between the small towns of Ocate and Springer. Trust lands are managed by the State Land Office to benefit 19 public schools, hospitals and universities in New Mexico through revenues from mineral extraction, grazing and other leases. Right now, the only revenue from White Peak land comes from 24 grazing leases and $200,000 a year the state Game and Fish Department pays to the State Land Office to allow sportsmen to use it.

But to get to state trust lands, hunters, trappers and others have to cross private lands. A few years ago, the UU Bar Ranch blocked access to a road on its land that hunters and others from the public had long used to reach the east side of White Peak. Ranch owners claimed people were trespassing. Sportsmen and two state attorneys general fought all the way to the state Supreme Court to reopen the road and won, but only for a two-mile portion of it.

Cimarron resident Lewis "Butch" Whitten, 68, is a licensed outfitter and guide who said he worked for the UU Bar Ranch for 16 years. He said trespassing and poaching do happen around White Peak, but it goes both ways. "Some hunters would wander from state trust lands onto UU Bar land, but then some UU Bar hunter would end up on state trust land," he said.

Whitten, who said he's guided and hunted the area for half a century, said he hasn't seen the map of the proposed land exchanges, but based on past experience he just doesn't trust the deal. "I hate to see portions of the state trust lands be swapped, or traded or sold because (they are among the) few places locals can go and hunt without paying an exorbitant price to private landowners," he said.

Jeremy Vesbach, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said Whitten didn't see a map because there isn't one on the State Land Office Web site and none is readily available without asking the office. No one has seen the appraisals on the trust land up for bid and no one has seen Lyons' plan. "If he says this is good deal for the public and the beneficiaries, then give the public a chance to look at it," Vesbach said.

In another proposed exchange of White Peak land, the UU Bar Ranch would swap some of its in-holdings for the trust lands with the heavily disputed access road. But most of the land UU Bar would trade comprises grasslands near Ocate that Vesbach said is not as valuable.

Brian G. Henington, deputy division director for the State Land Office's field operations, oversees all activity on 9 million acres of land. He's the guy laying the foundation for the bids and the land exchanges. He said the exchange would give the State Land Office two more access roads to state trust lands off N.M. 120 that hunters and the public could use. He said the exchange also would give the State Land Office meadows, springs and stock ponds instead of the densely forested, steep-sloped land in the area right around White Peak. "After the transfer, the State Land Office would own 44,000 acres of contiguous lands," Henington said.

He said the State Land Office has been working on the deal for 2 1/2 years. He said the grazing leaseholders and the State Game Commission knew about it, and if anyone from the public had asked him he would have been happy to show them the maps and explain the proposed land swap. "No one from the Wildlife Federation has come to see me," he said.

Henington, who said he grew up hunting all over New Mexico, disagrees with his fellow sportsmen about the land exchange. "We are getting some beautiful country," he said.

The state Department of Game and Fish game wardens issued 45 citations in the last two hunting seasons for trespassing, hunting without a license, driving off road and littering in the White Peak area.

Bids on another 3,431 acres of trust land around White Peak that the UU Bar Ranch would like to buy are due by Dec. 8 at 5 p.m. Two other competitive bids for trust lands — proposed by the CS Cattle Ranch and the Galloway Ranch — have not been advertised yet.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.