Last week, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) conducted a press conference via telephone with New Mexico journalists from Washington, D.C. Udall began the call by discussing legislation he has cosponsored to bring the Valles Caldera National Preserve into the National Park Service. Later in the call, he fielded some additional follow-up questions regarding the Valles Caldera. You can listen to this press conference by clicking here. The portions of the press conference pertaining to the Valles Caldera are transcribed in full below:
SEN. UDALL: I’d like to open today’s call by talking about a bill Sen. Bingaman and I introduced before last week’s recess. Our legislation would bring the Valles Caldera into the National Park Service. The bill would direct the Park Service to take over management of the preserve in a way that protects its natural and cultural resources. Hunting, fishing, and cattle grazing would all remain permitted under the bill. The Park Service, of course, would manage these uses to protect the ecology, and on the basis of sustainability. Additionally, the measure respects protections for tribal, cultural and religious sites, and ensures pueblo access to the area.
For many generations, the Caldera has been a part of life for the pueblo tribes of Northern New Mexico. Today, it continues to have an important cultural and religious significance — something that must be respected and protected as the preserve moves under the management of the National Park Service. My staff and Sen. Bingaman’s staff met last week in New Mexico with the pueblos of Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, and Jemez, as well as with the Valles Caldera Trust employees. The feedback we received was pretty positive. Next, Sen. Bingaman has scheduled a hearing on the bill for the end of June in his Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And I hope to keep you updated on this as we move along.
[Later in the press conference, another Caldera-related question came up]
REPORTER: I’d like to go back to the Valles Caldera National Park. Having grown up on the side of this my whole life, is there any opposition, first question, to this idea?
SEN. UDALL: You know, I don’t know that there’s outright opposition. I think there are folks out there that have concerns. I mean, part of the reason that our staffs were in New Mexico over the break was to visit with everybody and give them a sense of what was happening. So I don’t know if I can really identify, at this point, any specific opposition. I just think that there are concerns out there. And the best thing to do is what you usually do in the legislative context: put a bill out there, listen to people, try to address their concerns. That’s what Sen. Bingaman is going to be doing in his hearings coming up. If there is any opposition, I would suspect it may surface at the hearing. Sen. Bingaman has always been good at letting people come and testify that don’t necessarily agree with legislation that’s pending before his committee. I would give the Organ Wilderness as an example of that. I mean, not only did he have people in Washington that testified in opposition, we came out to New Mexico — to Las Cruces — and had a field hearing with over 700 people there, and a number of people wanted to see changes, and we’re working on those changes now.
REPORTER: OK. Now, if the National Park Service were to take this over, do you have any ideas about what the plans are? Will there still be only one way in and one way out? Are they going to open up any of the back gates for hiking, camping?
SEN. UDALL: Well, the good thing about having the National Park Service in charge is, number one, they would have the resources to develop this in such a way to give the maximum experience to anybody that wants to come, and so I don’t know, specifically, what their plans would be. I know there’s been some talk about having a Rim Trail, with also respecting some of the other owners on the rim. There would, I think, be additional infrastructure put in so that you could get a good visitor experience. But, you know, the key with all Park Service land, is to protect the ecological integrity of the land, while at the same time having a good visitor experience. There needs to be a real balance there. There has been, since it has been a National Preserve, fishing, hunting, and cattle grazing, and that’s going to continue. We’re going to put that into the legislation. But it’s going to have to be done in such a way that you maintain the ecological integrity of the property, and you do it on a long-term basis so that it’s sustainable.
