The Journal North published a letter today from Santa Fe resident Don Dayton supporting National Park Service management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (click here to read the letter on the Journal North web site. After clicking on the link, non-subscribers must click on the “trial premium pass” button on the bottom left to bring up the letter):
Preserve Better Under Park Service
I appreciate the March 3 Journal North editorial that refutes some of the claims of the current management board of the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
The board’s claim in the March 2 story in the Journal North that the preserve under National Park Service administration could lose its new Educational Center is completely absurd. Our National Parks are leaders in the areas of environmental, historical and archeological education. If anything, the NPS with its broad research expertise could very well expand on current student educational programs at the center and the preserve.
Another very important factor is that under the existing administration and management of adjacent Bandelier National Monument, the (cost of) administering the preserve probably could cost significantly less than the current annual operating budget of $3.5 million. Certainly the availability for public use would increase.
Don Dayton
Santa Fe
On Friday, the Santa Fe New Mexican published an article by longtime Caldera beat writer Staci Matlock, focusing on the opening of the aforementioned Preserve Science and Education Center. Click here to read that story, which begins below:
Next week, students from Lake Forest High School in Illinois will be the first group to enjoy accommodations at the Valles Caldera Trust’s new science and education center in Jemez Springs.
They’ll stay in the center’s 25 bedrooms, eat in the large dining hall and make use of the equipment in the 1,200-square-foot, state-of-the-art laboratory.
The 15,000-square-foot center realizes a long goal of Bob Parmenter, lead scientist with the Trust, which manages the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve. It is a place where students, researchers and other groups will be able to study in the vast outdoor classroom of the preserve and enjoy a few comforts at the same time, like wireless Internet connections, a bed and the nearby hot springs.
