One of the dysfunctional elements of having a politically-appointed Board of Trustees manage the Valles Caldera National Preserve is the hole in leadership that can exist after a change in presidential administrations.
Specifically, three of the seven appointed positions on the Trust have been vacant for the more than ten months since President Obama assumed office.
According to the Valles Caldera Preservation Act (the legislation that authorized the purchase of the Baca Ranch in 2000), the Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve should consist of seven members who are appointed by the President of the United States to four-year staggered terms. This legislation also mandates that each member should have a specific area of expertise.
The three empty seats on the Board of Trustees are designated for individuals with expertise in forestry, cultural and natural history, and “nonprofit conservation organization concerned with the activities of the Forest Service” — not unimportant components to the management of a piece of land replete with dozens of square miles of forest and 10,000 years of human history.
According to the above legislation, there are two additional ex-officio members of the Valles Caldera Trust: the Superintendent of Bandelier National Monument and the Supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest. However, in practice, these members have taken a backseat in clout to the politically-appointed members of the Trust.
A source close to the office of Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) tells VallesCaldera.com that there are currently hundreds of appointees of President Obama’s that are in line to be vetted and confirmed. This includes Obama’s proposed nominees to join the Caldera’s Board of Trustees: Ray Powell, the former New Mexico Land Commissioner (and executive director of the VCNP); Melissa Savage, the executive director of the Santa Fe-based Four Corners Institute; and Ken Smith, the former director of the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at New Mexico Highlands University.
One positive benefit of having an experienced, professional land management agency (such as the National Park Service) manage the Valles Caldera would be the lack of a leadership vacuum when a new administration assumes office. While high-level administrators of the National Park Service might change with different presidents, superintendents of national parks and preserves are typically professional, career public land managers who have been working in their field for decades, and are not swapped based on the political leanings of a particular administration.
If the National Park Service managed the Valles Caldera National Preserve, there would be continuity of leadership from administration to administration, without a nearly year-long vacancy of nearly half of the the management of one of the most treasured pieces of public land in New Mexico.
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