Yesterday’s Albuquerque Journal North included a letter to the editor written by the owner of VallesCaldera.com:
Let Park Service Run Valles Caldera
Re: the Nov. 15 letter stating that it would be premature to abolish the Valles Caldera Preservation Act because “it is worth waiting to see whether the Valles Caldera Preserve trustees can achieve” financial self-sufficiency:
The chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust, Stephen Henry, has himself explicitly given up hope of the preserve ever achieving profitability. For example, in an Oct. 9, 2009, letter to the Government Accountability Office [on p. 37], Henry writes: “Simply stated, the Valles Caldera Trust can never achieve financial independence under this legal regime.”
The preserve’s executive director, Gary Bratcher, also expressed this belief on Oct. 19 in a letter written to Sens. Bingaman and Udall [on p. 5]: “[The Valles Caldera Preservation Act] is defective. … The requirement that the Trust be financially self-sustaining is impossible to achieve.”
Therefore, all sides involved in the discussion about the future of one of the most treasured pieces of public land in New Mexico now recognize that it will never be financially self-sufficient.
Since it is now clear to managers of the preserve, as well as the local community, that this “experiment in land management” has failed and that its enabling legislation is defective, it is time for Congress to put a halt to the ill-fated trust experiment and place the preserve under the supervision of experienced, professional land managers, such as the National Park Service, the agency that ably manages the preserve’s neighboring Bandelier National Monument to much local satisfaction.
Jonathan Neal
Jemez Springs
