Last month, the Bureau of Land Management auctioned off drilling rights for areas in Utah, which angered some environmentalists, including one Robert Redford, who has been in movies and such. But in an interesting turn of events, one of the winning bidders for 22,500 acres of land isn’t part of an oil company - he’s an activist that infiltrated the auction.

And now Tim DeChristopher is in danger of losing the land he bid on, as he has not made a down payment to the government. He owes $45,000 at the moment, and officially won over $1.7 million in land. From msnbc.com:

The Bureau of Land Management has said it’s too late for Tim DeChristopher to make the down payment because the deposit was due immediately after last month’s auction for leases near Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah. But, in a letter to supporters, DeChristopher said he has a backup plan if he’s refused and the parcels are auctioned again. In that case, he wrote, ‘he money given to my Lease Fund will be used to acquire these parcels in the new auction.’

The Bureau of Land Management is none too thrilled about all of this, saying that DeChristopher “tainted the entire auction.” Already the government has had to remove some of the land from auction due to protests, so this is another hitch in the system.

The bureau already had pulled some parcels from the sale in response to complaints from the National Park Service and others. Ultimately, the agency dropped more than half of the 359,000 acres first proposed for auction.

If you’re interested in keeping pristine land just that, takepart and visit the Natural Resources Defense Council.