The Los Alamos County Council — the governing body of the largest town adjacent to the rim of the Valles Caldera — voted 7-0 tonight to approve a resolution endorsing a transfer of management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service.
This resolution, which backs an idea first proposed by U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall (D-NM) last June, calls for the Caldera to be managed as a National Park Preserve, which is similar to national parks except that hunting and certain other uses not typically permitted in parks would be allowed.
Noting that “the majority of the members of public who submitted comment via meeting and e-mail expressed their desire for the National Park Service to assume land management and operations for the Valles Caldera National Preserve,” the resolution can be read by clicking here.
UPDATE – April 8: The council also passed an amendment to this resolution which reveals a strong desire among the council for a change in Preserve management to occur without delay. The approved amendment states the following:
Be it further resolved, that if legislation to transfer the preserve is not enacted in 2010, congress consider action to modify the year 2000 enabling legislation to remove obstacles restricting the Valles Caldera Trust’s ability to effectively manage the preserve to meet the public’s access priorities.
At the council meeting, the National Park Service was represented by Bandelier National Monument Superintendent (and ex-officio member of the Valles Caldera Board of Trustees) Jason Lott. Council Chairman Michael Wismer engaged Mr. Lott by asking him how long it would take to transfer the current management of the Preserve to the National Park Service. Mr. Lott replied that such a transition would not take very long.
According to attendees of the meeting, no other members of the Valles Caldera National Preserve Board of Trustees nor employees of the Preserve were present.
Today’s Journal North also covered the council meeting under the headline “LA County Prefers Caldera Under NPS” (after clicking on this link, non-subscribers must click on the “trial access pass” button in the lower left of the screen to read the story). A portion of the story is shown below:
The Los Alamos County Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday supporting the transfer of management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve from a trust to the National Park Service, to be managed as a national preserve so hunting could continue there.
County Councilor Nona Bowman said that during two public meetings held in the past month to address concerns over the trust’s management “90 percent, maybe even 95 percent of the people wanted more access to the park.”
