As New Mexicans eagerly await the results of a two-month “reconnaissance” study assessing the potential for the National Park Service to take control of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has recommended to President Barack Obama the names of three individuals for the President’s consideration to fill the three open slots on the Valles Caldera Board of Trustees, according to the Los Alamos Monitor: Ray Powell, Melissa Savage, and Ken Smith.
The Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 states that the Valles Caldera National Preserve is governed by a nine-member Board of Trustees, seven members of which are appointed by the President of the United States to staggered, four-year terms, with each Trustee supposedly having a specific field of expertise. The two remaining trustees, the Supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest and the Superintendent of Bandelier National Monument, are ex-officio members of the Board by virtue of their positions.
Once President Obama submits his appointments, the board would be left with four appointees of former President George W. Bush, along with the three potential Obama appointees and two ex-officio members. The current appointed Trustees, whose contact information can be found here, are as follows (with their area of expertise and final year of their term in parentheses): Chairman Steve Henry (wildlife management, 2011), Vice-Chairman Edward Tinsley (financial management, 2011), Secretary Ray Loretto (state and local government, 2013), and Virgil Trujillo (livestock management, 2013). Dan Jiron, Supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest, and Jason Lott, Superintendent of Bandelier National Monument, round out the current Board.
Here is some information on the potential new members of the Valles Caldera Board of Trustees:
Ray Powell became the second executive director of the Valles Caldera National Preserve in 2004 before resigning in 2005. Subsequently, he served as the New Mexico Commissioner for Public Lands from 1993 to 2003. Powell unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for the same office in 2006, and has indicated that he will enter the race again in 2010.
Melissa Savage is the Executive Director of the Santa Fe-based Four Corners Institute, whose goal is to partner “with local communities in the Southwest to conserve our natural places and ensure that the use of the environment is socially equitable and ecologically sustainable.” Savage is also a retired professor of geography at UCLA. [Savage's photo was unable to be obtained]
Ken Smith is the Chair of the Environmental Studies Program and an Associate Professor of Forestry and Geology at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. He is also a former director of the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at New Mexico Highlands University, which is “a statewide effort that engages government agencies, academic and research institutions, land managers, and the interested public in the areas of forest and watershed management.”
