UPDATE – Sept. 6: The Associated Press published a widely-reproduced article on the Trust’s ten-year restoration plan and its accompanied website. Click here to read the entire article, the opening of which is quoted below:
Visitors line the highway, most peering through binoculars, as they strain to get a better look at dozens of brown specks in the distance.
The specks — members of Valles Caldera National Preserve’s infamous elk herd — are munching in green pastures that stretch for miles. They are surrounded by mountain peaks blanketed with ponderosa pine, spruce and fir trees.
The expansive preserve is a sight to behold, but caretakers say Valles Caldera’s forests, grasslands and wetlands are not as healthy as they look. Nearly a decade of research has provided them with statistics to say so, and now they have developed a 10-year plan to get the preserve back into shape by using everything from prescribed fire and thinning to weed control and wetland restoration.
ORIGINAL POST: The Valles Caldera Trust has debuted a new section of its web site designed to educate the public regarding its “10-year strategy for the restoration and management of the forest, grassland, shrubland, and riparian ecosystems” on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, and to take public input regarding this plan.
Click here to visit the new section of the Trust’s official government web site.
While replete with information and supporting documents, the web site does lack some particulars. Namely, it does not mention how the proposed strategy would change if the Valles Caldera National Preserve Management Act, legislation that would transfer management of the Preserve to the National Park Service, is passed by Congress. This bill has been unanimously approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is now up for consideration by the full Senate. In fact, the National Park Service is not mentioned at all on the site. The document also mentions enhancing objectives of surrounding National Forest lands, but fails to discuss how to enhance objectives of the forests of the National Park Service’s Bandelier National Monument, which shares a boundary with the Preserve.
The Associated Press ran a story about the new section of the Preserve’s web site:
The web page includes documents, maps and other links related to the proposed 10-year strategy for restoring and managing the forests, grasslands and riparian ecosystems on the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Trust officials say restoration and management of the preserve’s resources is at the heart of their stewardship responsibilities and will be 1 of the most important planning efforts undertaken by the trust.
The plan will guide decisions on forest thinning, prescribed fire, wetland restoration, travel management and noxious weed control, among other things.
Comments will be accepted through Sept. 29.
UPDATE: Sept. 3: Marie Rodriguez, the Natural Resources Coordinator of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, sent the following email to VallesCaldera.com today in response to the above post:
In your posting regarding the proposed Landscape Restoration & Management Plan you noted that we had provided no information about how the possible transfer of the Preserve to the National Park Service would affect this plan.
We simply cannot provide any official statement of certainty as to how a transfer would affect the proposed restoration.
However, the Bill that was actually voted on in committee (your link is to the Bill as introduced, not as voted on) states, “The Secretary shall undertake activities to improve the health of forest, grassland, and riparian areas within the Preserve, including any activities carried out in accordance with title IV of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of
2009 (16 U.S.C. 7301 et seq.)”Further, it allows the Secretary to continue activities and programs developed by the Trust until planning is completed in compliance with Interior regulations.
One administrative issue is funding. The funding awarded under title IV can only be expended on National Forest System land. Should the transfer occur the current funding would no longer be availble for expenditure on the Preserve. However, we would be optimistic that the Secretary would support the collaboration and commitments made by all stakeholders.
In policies and documents such as the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and the New Mexico Restoration Principles, federal land managers recognize that the management of ecosystems including habitats and disturbance must be considered across administrative boundaries.
The goals and objectives of the proposed plan are completely consistent with the current and proposed legislation that guides (or would guide) the management of the Preserve.
