Agreed, they are separate issues, except that the property right does apply in this case.
The owner had the desire to give the land to the feds. The owners lobbied, and got the feds to take it. There was no “demand”. It was a willing exchange.
So property rights, coupled with the current authority held by the feds to declare land as a park or monument, came into play here.
Whatever the gov has the authority to do, there will be folks lobbying to gov to take action in that regard. Gov authority includes expenditures taken to affect those actions. That’s why it’s a good idea to limit what authority gov has.
So while I would rather not see the gov pick up another park or monument, I in fact would like to see them dump all parks, not just this one. Nevertheless, if gov has that authority and some eco-sap wants to hand over their property in that fashion, then that’s that.
To me, the “solution” here is to take away gov’s authority to declare land as park or monument.
The solution is NOT to say someone can’t do something with their land, that includes the transfer of it.