Angry hunters and skeptical public officials Thursday grilled state Land Commissioner Pat Lyons over a controversial package of state trust-land trades around Whites Peak.

The confrontation at the state Land Office in Santa Fe came shortly after the first such deal closed, involving the Stanley Ranch.

Lyons held the meeting to give state legislators more information about the trade. But the session more than once devolved into heated exchanges, with Lyons and a Las Vegas, N.M., hunting guide at one point shaking fingers at each other.

"This is wrong," said Albert H. Goke, who said he had been a licensed guide for 10 years and that the trust lands being traded into private hands have some of the biggest bull elk.

State Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, asked Lyons why the meeting was held on the day the main land trade was already completed. "It is not good policy to explain a complicated exchange after the fact," Egolf said.

Rancher David Stanley traded 3,336 acres of private land valued at $6.4 million for 7,205 acres of state trust land valued at $6.3 million. The trade consolidates his holdings and state trust lands around Whites Peak. Exchanges are proposed with three other private ranches, including a swap with UUBar that could close anytime in the next few weeks.

Lyons said the exchange will create 44,000 acres of contiguous state trust lands with more water sources, good big-game habitat and new permanent public access off N.M. 120.

Hunters from Mora and Las Vegas who attended the meeting said the Stanley trade takes away some of the best elk-hunting areas. "Those of us who know that area know what's being lost," Angelo Archuleta of Mora said. "It's painful."

Egolf has asked the attorney general to investigate the appraisals conducted for the land trade. He said he thought the only possibility to void the Stanley land trade now would be if Lyons was sued for breach of fiduciary trust or for not complying with the state Enabling Act.

State trust lands are managed to benefit 23 schools and hospitals in the state such as the New Mexico Military Institute and the New Mexico School for the Deaf. Lyons is charged with generating revenue off trust lands for the beneficiaries, and revenues have risen steadily under his two-term tenure as state land commissioner.

Lyons said consolidating the state trust lands increases the value of the lands and will allow him to make more money off grazing leases and through camping, recreation and other activities. But when Egolf asked for a revenue-source analysis, Lyons did not have one, other than to offer a projection on increased grazing lease income.

"If anything, his explanation leaves me more convinced than ever that we shouldn't proceed," Egolf said afterward. "We're going through all this for a $1,700 increase (in grazing lease revenue)."

Santa Fe County Commissioner Mike Anaya, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the land commissioner's job, asked Lyons, a Republican who is prevented by term limits from running for re-election this year, how many times he had met with hunters or members of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation about the land trade.

Lyons said the state Game and Fish Department office in Raton and game commissioners were told about the proposed land trade. "We have an open-door policy," Lyons said. "I'm the fourth commissioner to attempt this. This has been in the public eye for 30 years."

Peter Martinez, who chairs the Mora County Commission, responded that if no land trade had been successful yet, it meant people didn't want it to happen.

Stanley, who did not attend the meeting, said he won't be surprised if someone files a lawsuit. "We knew that whatever we did there would be heavy political pressure," Stanley said.

Stanley said there have been other attempts to resolve the problems around Whites Peak, including negotiations between private landowners and hunters when Ray Powell was land commissioner. "These hunters have controlled the area and the Land Office for 50 years," he said. "Ethically this is the right thing to do.'

Egolf said his impression is the Whites Peak land trade is getting "railroaded" through.

"If I were David Stanley, I'd be so psyched. It is a great deal for him," Egolf said. "Doesn't mean it is a great deal for the trust."

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