Yesterday’s edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican featured a story by reporter Staci Matlock about the recent release of a GAO audit of the Valles Caldera Trust. The article begins as follows:
The group charged with managing the Valles Caldera National Preserve is five years behind schedule and suffers from weak planning, a new federal report says.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which released its latest review of the preserve on Oct. 30, notes the Valles Caldera Trust has fallen short in its efforts to meet mandates Congress set for the Jemez Mountains property. Most problems stem from a mandate that the preserve pay for itself and be free of federal financial help by 2015.
The findings likely will bolster a push by a Santa Fe-based group, Caldera Action, to dismantle the trust and place the preserve under National Park Service control.
“Our thoughts on the report is that it confirms what the earlier report shows and that they really haven’t made any progress,” Tom Jervis, a Caldera Action board member, said. “They say they can run the place like a business, but they can’t.”
Jervis also indicated in the article that Caldera Action has collected over 1,500 petition signatures in support of a plan to have the National Park Service assume management of the Valles Caldera as a National Park Preserve. This idea is currently being studied by the NPS at the request of New Mexico’s U.S. Senators, Jeff Bingaman (D) and Tom Udall (D), and is supported by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.
Click here to read the full article.
