The State Emergency Commission will have to act a little bit like Santa Claus if North Dakotans are to get a historic and beautiful piece of the Badlands anytime around Christmas.

The state's Parks and Recreation Department hopes to become owner of the 5,000-acre Eberts ranch north of Medora on the Little Missouri River in a deal that will cost about $3.5 million.

Wednesday, the commission will decide whether to let the State Game and Fish Department transfer $424,000 of its operating funds to the state parks toward the ranch's purchase. The commission, headed by Gov. John Hoeven, meets to make spending changes between fiscal cycles. Hoeven is a strong supporter of the purchase.

The commission also will decide whether to authorize the parks to spend a $100,000 transfer from the governor's discretionary budget. The combined $524,000 would be used to match an equal amount from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is administered by the National Park Service. In a third action, the commission will decide if the parks can spend $200,000 it needs to borrow to help buy the land.

The three Eberts brothers want to sell their ranch for public use and preservation because of its historical ties to Theodore Roosevelt. The National Park Service preserves Roosevelt's cabin site just across the river from the Ebertses and the future president admired his view of the Ebertses' land and ran cattle there in the late 1880s.

The Ebertses first offered their ranch to the National Park Service in 2002, but that plan ran afoul of some public sentiment, which preferred less restrictive ownership.

The State Parks and Recreation Department would operate the ranch as a primitive use preserve, open to hunting, camping, grazing and continued oil development. It's likely a park employee would run a working ranch there, something like the Nature Conservancy does at the Cross Ranch in Oliver County.

Hoeven's farm policy adviser, Lance Gaebe, is putting together an assorted package to come up with the money.

Besides the $1 million in combined state and Land and Water Conservation Fund money - pending action by the Emergency Commission - the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service has committed $2 million. That agency acquires easements to restrict housing, development and cultivation on suitable land.

Gaebe said the Natural Resources Conservation Service is already surveying the ranch, and the easement could be transferred in January.

Added all together - the two federal sources at $2.5 million and the state in for $700,000 - the package is still $200,000 shy.

Gaebe said he's talking to other conservation groups about contributions.

"It's never a done deal until it is," he said.

If all goes as hoped, North Dakota could have title to the ranch by March and access soon after.

In the meantime, the Ebertses are in court, trying to fight off a plan by Billings County to take a private ranch road to cross the Little Missouri River and provide the only east-west crossing through the Badlands. The county has been trying to ease its transportation problem for decades by building the road, but a river crossing always has been an impediment. Now, with a low-water crossing at the Ebertses', rather than a high-profile bridge, the county hopes to solve environmental issues that have hexed the plan in the past.

The North Dakota Supreme Court will be asked to lift an injunction so the county can proceed to a quick take on the road. Gaebe said the state opposes a major road through the ranch, but is hopeful it can work with Billings County so residents have access to their property.