VallesCaldera.com – The independent news source about the Valles Caldera

An audio recording of the most recent public meeting of the Valles Caldera Trust is now available at VallesCaldera.com.  Click here to listen to this meeting in its entirety, and see below for a detailed overview of the meeting.

VallesCaldera.com will endeavor to provide online access to audio recordings of all future public meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve.  Until this point, such recordings have never before been made available online to the public.

Among the developments from the meeting, which was conducted on Sept. 29, 2009 in Las Cruces, it was revealed that Preserve management is now in possession of a draft copy of a Government Accountability Office audit of the Valles Caldera Trust.  This audit has been mentioned by Sen. Tom Udall as a tool that that will help the New Mexico Congressional Delegation “take stock of where we are today” as a precursor for determining “the options in the future” regarding management possibilities for the Valles Caldera.  The GAO audit (the contents of which the Trust could not reveal) should be released to Congress on Oct. 31, according to Trust Chairman Stephen Henry.

Additionally, it was disclosed that Trust management has established a maximum potential total capacity of the Valles Caldera National Preserve during its summer recreation season of 23,000 visitor-days (which is the amount of total days that each visitor could spend on the Preserve. For example, one person visiting for three days as well as three people visiting for one day would both yield three visitor days). For the sake of comparison, the Preserve’s neighboring Bandelier National Monument hosted 243,765 visitors in 2006, which is more than ten times this amount (the most recent official figures provided by the Trust to Congress show that 15,000 people visited the Preserve in 2008). A Preserve representative stated that maximum visitor capacity would generate $865,000 (which is 20.2% of the most recent estimation provided to Congress of total annual Preserve expenditures of $4,278,508).

The meeting also featured an extensive presentation on the impact of grazing on the riparian areas of the Caldera, with a detailed discussion about the overall health of the two main Caldera watersheds.  Dr. Colleen Caldwell, who performed the presentation, declared that the Valles Caldera is home to “the greatest density of salmonids seen in the intermountain West” and that the lower East Fork of the Jemez River “would be a wonderful place” to reintroduce the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout (see this detailed U.S. Forest Service report on the Cutthroat in PDF).  She also advised that some streambank restoration work on the East Fork needs to take place in order to maximize the health of that river and its population of fish.

A compilation of the highlights of the meeting is as follows.  Each highlight is preceded by the timestamp for the point on the recording that the discussion or quote takes place.

1:27 — Chairman Stephen Henry stated that the Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve is “not governed by the Open Meetings Act.”

1:42 — Henry mentioned that the Trust has received a draft of an audit of the Valles Caldera National Preserve that has been conducted by the Government Accountability Office.  He stated that the Trust is preparing a response, but is not permitted to discuss the findings of the audit until it is officially released.  The GAO will submit the report to relevant Congressional committees on Oct. 31, 2009.

4:15 — Henry stated that he was reelected by the board of Trustees to be its chairman “for however long, if and when the Trust continues to exist.”  Ed Tinsley will remain vice-chair of the Trust.

18:35 — Dr. Chris Allison discussed the high-altitude bull testing program that took place this summer on the Preserve.

30:45 — Dr. Colleen Caldwell presented the findings of her study on the effects of grazing on the riparian ecosystems of the Caldera.

35:19 — Caldwell mentioned how she hypothesized that the effect of cattle grazing on riparian areas of the Caldera would be a shift in riparian vegetation from deeply-rooted grass species to shallow-rooted species, resulting in a reduction in streambank stability.  This would lead to an increase in width-depth ratio with respect to stream size — a “wider stream that becomes shallower.”  This would thereby lead to an increase in water temperature, as well as a loss in undercut streambanks, which are needed by fish in mountain meadow streams on hot, summer days as a place to hide.

37:00 — Caldwell stated that recent estimates by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish peg the current elk count on the Preserve at 2,500, and that the influence of elk on the streams was light — about 0.1 to 0.15 head of elk per hectare (2.47 acres), or one head of elk for every 16.4-24.7 acres.  For cattle, she estimates the influence to be light as well — 0.01 to 0.51 head of cattle per hectare (or one head of cattle for every 4.8-247 acres), and that this was “well below” the “estimated utilization that was established for the Caldera.”  She stated that the effects of grazing that she measured were “very low, low effects.”

38:00 — Caldwell: “The results of some of the work that we were doing — we found no detectable difference among the grazing treatments on streambank stability… we found, throughout these treatments, within both watersheds [the East Fork of the Jemez River and the San Antonio River] that those streambanks were fairly stable.  Moderately stable.  And the undercut banks — there were no difference in undercut structures among those grazing treatments.”

39:00 — Caldwell relates how, as part of her study, researchers hand-inserted 5-millimeter transistors into 1,500 German Brown Trout to map their movement and growth.  They found that the fish had high “site-fidelity,” meaning that the fish didn’t move much, and exhibited no location preferences with regard to grazing treatment.  The study also found that grazing had no effect on the growth rates of the studied fish.

45:00 — The San Antonio River has a gradient of higher than 1.5% (cobble substrate), whereas the East Fork of the Jemez River has a gradient lower than 1.5% (silt substrate), according to Caldwell.  Rivers with cobble substrate are more conducive to spawning than those with silt substrate.

45:55 — According to Caldwell, the Valles Caldera has “the greatest density of salmonids seen in the intermountain West… I’ve never seen density of fish — of salmonids, in the entire intermountain west…it is the highest… it is amazing.”  She mentioned that native fish dominate in the East Fork.

47:00 — Caldwell stated that the reason her study did not detect any noticeable effect of grazing on riparian areas is that “the study hadn’t carried through long enough,” being only 4 years long, as opposed to other studies that last 10-20 years.

47:37 — The East Fork did have some streambank instability, according to Caldwell, “but not so bad.” She stated that some streambank restoration on the East Fork would be advisable, in order to lower the width-depth ratio of that river and to lower its temperatures, especially “if you can anticipate climate change coming down the pike.”

56:25 — Regarding the condition of the East Fork of the Jemez River, Caldwell stated that, “overall, the health of that system is wonderful.  It’s in great shape.  It’s just little parts of it need a little bit of help.”

57:00 — Caldwell: “It would help those little, narrow corridors on both sides of the streams if livestock were kept away from those areas at certain times of the year.  So, there are areas that really do need the help — you might think about keeping the cattle out of those areas, to allow for those to actually strengthen themselves, which could take some time… they need time to heal, in some sense.”

58:30 — It would be “absolutely” appropriate to stock the lower East Fork with German Brown Trout at this time, according to Caldwell.  An unidentified voice stated that there are currently 1.78 German Brown Trout per linear meter on the upper East Fork, and that this figure is close to zero in the lower East Fork.  The upper East Fork right now is like a “hatchery raceway,” according to the voice.  In the lower East Fork, Preserve Scientist Bob Parmenter said the fish numbers in the lower East Fork are “okay — they’re just not trout — they’re fatheads and suckers and chubs.”  Caldwell mentioned that they caught some Rainbow Trout there during her study.

1:04:30 — According to Parmenter, there is currently a beaver restoration program underway on the Rito de los Indios, with proposals out through Seventh Generation Institute and WildEarth Guardians to continue this program on the Indios and to expand it to Sulphur Creek and Redondo Creek.

1:05:15 — Caldwell asserted that reintroduced Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout “would not do well on the San Antonio — they get their butts kicked by Browns…they’re just not a very hardy species.  But I think that the [East Fork] might be suitable…. there are parts of the [East Fork], definitely, that the ‘Cuts’ would do very well,” in conjunction with the stream restoration, as well as “minor, minor, some fish removal” of some Browns and Rainbows that “just pick on those ‘Cuts.’”  Caldwell also mentioned that the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout is being considered as being listed as endangered by the federal government.  “We’re finding its range is being reduced so much so, wherever we find it.  So I think the Caldera would be a wonderful place to place the Cutthroat,” especially since they can withstand higher temperatures than other salmonids.

1:26:43 — Preserve Manager Dennis Trujillo stated that the Valles Caldera National Preserve has been awarded $750,000 of federal stimulus funds (the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”) for two forest restoration and thinning projects.  The first, which will take place in Redondo Canyon, will be funded by $600,000 of stimulus funds.  The second, a thinning project along Highway 4, will be paid for by $150,000 of stimulus money.

1:33:38 — Trujillo mentioned that the Trust believes that there is sufficient interest in the areas of Española, Jemez, and Las Vegas to perform this work through contracts and agreements.

1:40:10 — According to Hunt Manager Mick Trujillo, there are 300-500 wild turkeys currently on the Preserve.

1:52:30 — “There won’t be reservations for hiking next year,” according to Recreation Program Manager Rob Dixon.  In its place will be a Preserve shuttle system.

2:09:13 — According to Dixon, at full capacity the Preserve would be able to handle 23,000 visitor days through all summer recreation activities (including special events and lodging), with a maximum summer recreation revenue potential of $865,000.

2:27:03 — Parmenter described how calf-cow ratios on the Preserve are lower than normal.  A standard ratio would be 30-40 calves per every 100 cows (female elk).

2:32:36 — Parmenter revealed that the first booking for the Preserve’s new 25-room Science and Education facility in Jemez Springs is from Lake Forest High School in Chicago.