VallesCaldera.com – The independent news source about the Valles Caldera

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.

The Journal North published an article yesterday entitled “Programs at Risk,” which quoted managers at the Valles Caldera National Preserve asserting that many of its programs might be ended if the National Park Service assumed control over the Preserve. In response to this article, the editors of the Journal North promptly wrote an unsigned editorial that was printed today, headlined “Trust Argues for Status Quo,” which criticized statements by Preserve management in the article as “less than convincing,” “hard to believe,” and “laughable.”

Click here to read yesterday’s article, “Programs at Risk,” and click here to read today’s responding editorial, “Trust Argues For Status Quo” (after clicking on either of the prior links, non-subscribers must click on the “trial premium pass” button on the bottom left of the screen to read the selected story).

Yesterday’s article begins as such:

On March 14, a new educational center for the Valles Caldera National Preserve will welcome its first field-tripping high schoolers. Lake Forest (Illinois) High School students will spend a week gathering biological materials in the Valles Caldera and analyzing them with state-of-the-art lab equipment.

But it’s just those types of programs that could be lost if the preserve is taken over by the U.S. Forest or Park Service, according to the current managers.
…
“What will you cut out if you (a federal agency) take over?” [Executive Director Gary Bratcher] asks, then answers: “Everything but hiking and camping. That’ll be it.”

Mr. Bratcher is mistaken — if the Caldera is transformed into a National Park Preserve, as has been proposed by New Mexico’s U.S. Senators, hunting and fishing would explicitly be allowed. Additionally, according to an article examining National Park Preserves published in the Albuquerque Journal last July, “grazing, too, is allowed on preserves, as are fishing, hiking, biking and a wide variety of other uses.” Also, according to the article, “each preserve follows NPS regulations to tailor itself to the individual location.”

In today’s piece, the editors of the Journal North take the management of the VCNP to task for some of their questionable assertions in the prior day’s article in their own newspaper:

But the preserve managers’ argument that unique educational and scientific programs will not be available if the Park Service (or the U.S. Forest Service) takes over is less than convincing.

Showing off the preserve’s new educational and scientific center in Jemez Springs recently, executive director Gary Bratcher said stargazing with big telescopes, for example, might not be allowed under some other agency’s jurisdiction. Nor, Bratcher said, might class-loads of students, which the new center can host for overnight or even weeklong stays, be able to learn science hands-on by collecting data on the preserve and analyzing it in the center’s state-of-the-art lab.

That’s hard to believe — we recall Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, as just one example, hosting a bevy of state astronomy fanatics who treated park visitors to just such a night of stargazing.

Additionally, an expert familiar with the National Park Service tells VallesCaldera.com that National Park Preserves are “replete with programs like [the science and education programs at the VCNP]. And since federal funding is not used for [these programs at the VCNP], it is extremely unlikely that they would be disturbed.”

Furthermore, the Valles Caldera’s neighboring Bandelier National Monument, a unit of the National Park Service, features a robust science program that has long been valuable to the local and national public.

The editors of the Journal North also criticize the management of the Caldera for their philosophy of restrictive access:

Bratcher characterized the trust’s programs as “special,” apparently because the trust maintains strict control over access to the Valles Caldera. Agencies like the Park Service can’t do that, says Bratcher, so their programs aren’t going to be as special. Somebody should remind Bratcher that lack of public access has been the No. 1 complaint about the trust’s management of the preserve.

The editors further deride statements by VCNP management as such:

Bratcher also characterized the trust management as light on its feet and flexible. That’s laughable. The trust wasn’t even flexible enough to recognize the good financial deal offered recently by a national environmental group, which would have paid many times the going rate to lease the preserve’s grazing rights for the opportunity not to run cows.

The trust certainly hasn’t been flexible enough to figure out ways to increase opportunities for public access to the hiking, skiing, camping and sightseeing crowd, either. And that’s the main reason for the public sentiment that’s fueling the crusade to turn preserve management over to someone else.

The following letter to the editor in support of converting the Valles Caldera into a National Park Preserve was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican this week. Click here to read the letter on the New Mexican website.

The Valles Caldera National Preserve should be transferred to the National Park Service for management. The trust in charge of these federal lands has sharply limited public access to this area. The Park Service has shown their capable visitor management skills in the adjoining Bandelier National Monument. They have demonstrated an excellent balance in handling large numbers of visitors efficiently while preserving the natural values of the area.

The Valles Caldera is one of the largest volcanic calderas in the world and is an outstanding scenic area worthy of national park status. The preserve should be combined with the Bandelier National Monument to create the Valles Caldera National Park. Envision a grand national park with hiking trails to the rim of the caldera with grand vistas of mountain meadows. Opportunities to view the elk herd would be plentiful. A great national park would be a legacy to our state.

Steve McDonald
Placitas

Several op-eds and letters to the editor of local newspapers about the controversy regarding potential management changes at the Valles Caldera have been published this month.

The first piece, an op-ed published in the Los Alamos Monitor, was written by Los Alamos resident Ilse Bleck, who came down firmly on the side of modifying the management structure of the Valles Caldera so that it is governed as a National Park Service preserve, which has been proposed by New Mexico’s U.S. Senators.

A portion of Ms. Bleck’s op-ed is shown below. Click here to read the op-ed in its entirety.

Make the Valles Caldera a national park

As you all know, the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) is a treasure located right in our back yard. Its wealth of cultural, historic, recreational and educational opportunities are framed everywhere by beautiful scenery. Currently, the Valles Caldera Trust is charged with protecting and preserving the preserve. Additionally, the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 mandates that the Trust achieve financial self-sustainability by the year 2015.

Recurrent issues have dominated discussions about the VCNP almost from the beginning. Foremost are public accessibility and financial self-sufficiency.

While permitted recreational activities are increasing in number and variety, they remain structured, confined to small areas of the preserve and expensive. Trails within the VCNP are open for a fee at appointed times and see little use compared with those of Bandelier National Monument. Many in Los Alamos would like to be able to hike in the VCNP, as they do Bandelier, at their own leisure and for a reasonable fee.

The second issue – financial self-sufficiency – was addressed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report of October 2009. They concluded, “The Trust has made progress but faces significant challenges to achieve goals of the Preservation Act.” Gary Bratcher, Executive Director of the Trust, stated at the county council meeting on Feb. 2, that under the current law the Trust could not attain self-sufficiency by 2015. The Trust is striving to change the law and perhaps ask for an extension to the 2015 deadline.

Should the VCNP be terminated after a review process that is supposed to begin in 2015, it would eventually revert to the National Forest Service under the current law.

Various organizations in New Mexico, including the Sierra Club, have joined the initiative of the group Caldera Action in their endeavor to make the VCNP a part of the National Park Service (NPS). These groups believe the NPS could best manage the existing VCNP in ways consistent with the original “protect and preserve” charter behind the VCNP. The NPS has a history of making public land accessible to the public while protecting its resources. The vision is to see it as a preserve within the NPS. Like the present VCNP, a National Park Preserve admits hunting and fishing. Economic sustainability through admission charges, however, as though the Caldera were merely an entertainment venue, would no longer be an issue. The inestimable contribution a natural setting such as the Caldera gives to public well-being would finally receive its due.

A letter to the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican was also recently penned by Tilkemeier Roger of Santa Fe (click here to read the letter on the New Mexican website):

Valles Caldera: a ranch at heart

With due respect to recent letters regarding the Valles Caldera, historically known as the Baca Ranch, I would suggest that writers on this subject carefully read the enabling legislation that authorized the purchase of the ranch. The following legislative facts may be of interest: “The Congress found that history indicates the importance of this land, over many generations, for domesticated livestock production — and that the Baca Ranch can be preserved for current and future generations as a working ranch. The purchase was made with Federal Land and Water Conservation Funds, not taxpayers’ money. The Preserve shall be managed as a working ranch, including visitor and recreation programs that, by common sense, are compatible with the ranching operation.”

The Baca Ranch is a unit of the National Forest and is legislated to become part of the forest service system if the current management experiment fails.

Tilkemeier Roger
Santa Fe

This is a good time to point out that the Land and Water Conservation Fund is indeed taxpayers’ money, as it is financed by corporate taxpayers (in the form of receipts from offshore oil and gas leases) into the treasury of the United States, and the fund is designed to provide “money to federal, state and local governments to purchase land, water and wetlands for the benefit of all Americans.”

As for the enabling legislation, it is true that the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 mandated that the Preserve be run as a working ranch. However, any management change at the Valles Caldera would require rewriting this legislation. Now is the time for citizens to communicate to their representatives in Washington how, if at all, they would want the legislation governing the Valles Caldera to be modified, including with regard to the “working ranch” concept.

Finally, many New Mexicans have expressed alarm at the current legal stipulation that if the current management structure fails, the Preserve would become part of the Forest Service. Although many visitors to the Preserve have demonstrated displeasure at the limited level of access currently permitted, many see Forest Service management as likely yielding virtually unlimited access to the Preserve, causing immeasurable damage to this land.

Many who are searching for a new direction in management apart from the Valles Caldera Trust have been envisioning a moderate, middle-ground: a level of access that would be reasonably increased from the low levels allowed by the Trust, but dramatically reduced from those levels that would be permitted under Forest Service control. Many have looked to the National Park Service as a public land agency that might provide such a moderate, middle ground.

The Santa Fe New Mexican today published a feature about the opportunities for winter recreation that are being offered on the Valles Caldera National Preserve this season:

A brilliant bed of deep, creamy snow awaits visitors to the Valles Caldera National Preserve this winter where cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and sightseeing is at its best right now.

Click here to read the entire article in the New Mexican.

According to the story, this weekend is the last opportunity of the season to take advantage of a sleigh ride on the VCNP, while the Preserve is scheduled to be open to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and sightseeing under the full moon Feb. 27.

The New Mexican also states that weekend and special-event visitation so far this winter has passed all of last year’s total for the season: last year, the preserve saw 1,814 visitors during the winter season and earned $12,474. This year, with several weeks still yet to go, the preserve has already seen 2,979 visitors and earned $31,699.

Click here to visit the VCNP’s recreation reservation page.

[The photo shown is licensed under Flickr.com's Creative Commons agreement, allowing its use in the public domain]

Several letters to the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican regarding the proposal to transfer management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service have been published in recent weeks. Click on the title of a letter to read it on the New Mexican web site:

“Put preserve under new management”

The recent release of the National Park Service report on the Valles Caldera National Preserve commissioned by U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall last June should be the last straw of justification needed before its full conversion to the National Park system as a preserve.

Management as a preserve, such as is the case for nearby Great Sand Dunes National Preserve in southern Colorado, will ensure full protection of natural resources with continuation of hunting and fishing while allowing affordable and easy access for the public — the latter clearly not the case for the purchasing taxpayers under the current trust management.

As pointed out in the NPS report, use of knowledgeable and seasoned land managers by this arm of the federal system will decrease costs while enhancing visitation rates and providing an economic boost to the local economy, obvious advantages that derive from association with the National Park system.

Thomas Taylor
Santa Fe

“Caldera’s well-managed”

With all of the articles on stewardship of the Valles Caldera, it is apparent that this area will soon be turned into another haven for individuals who talk the talk, but can’t walk the walk. I recently had the opportunity to visit this pristine area and was very impressed. There was no litter, human encroachment was limited, wildlife was plentiful, and the scenery was spectacular.

The present management is committed to protecting the environment, and to preserving it for future generations. Let’s not re-invent the wheel. A hasty decision is usually wrong.

Jeff Little
Santa Fe

“Transfer Caldera control”

The Jan. 23 letter, “Caldera’s well-managed,” stated that the Valles Caldera Trust is “committed to protecting the environment.” Last August, the trust unveiled a business model that included proposals for up to $143 million in commercial resort-style developments on the preserve, including luxury lodges, RV parks, roads, lounges and restaurants.

Until the Valles Caldera Trust is replaced with an experienced, professional public land-management agency that is free of a legislative mandate to operate the preserve as a profit-generating corporation, the danger of destructive development on this scenic treasure remains.

Additionally, this month’s report endorsing the proposal of Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall to transfer management of the preserve to the National Park Service concluded that such management would be more fiscally efficient because it would consolidate preserve resources with those of neighboring Bandelier National Monument and would provide a needed economic boost to Northern New Mexico.

Jonathan Neal
Jemez Springs

Last Wednesday, the Valles Caldera National Preserve Board of Trustees conducted the first of four planned public meetings for 2010 at the Pueblo of Jemez. According to a story in the Los Alamos Monitor, at the meeting the governor of Jemez Pueblo voiced opposition to a possible transfer of management of the Caldera to the National Park Service that has been proposed by New Mexico’s U.S. senators. Click here to read this entire article. A portion of the article is quoted below:

Speaking at a meeting of the Valles Caldera Board of Trustees at the Jemez Pueblo Community Resource Center Wednesday, Joshua Madalena, tribal governor, stated his opposition to converting the Valles Caldera National Preserve to a National Park Service Preserve.

He criticized a National Park Service report about the feasibility of acquiring the preserve for not having properly considered the Pueblo. “We have been worshiping on these lands for thousands of years,” he said, “and we want assurance that we will continue to have access to our traditional sacred grounds. The report did not address our needs.”

Conciliatory reaction to Gov. Madalena’s statement by New Mexico’s congressional delegation and groups interested in the Caldera seemed to acknowledge the validity of the governor’s displeasure that the Pueblo had not been adequately consulted regarding this potential change in management:

Jude McCartin, a spokeswoman for Bingaman acknowledged the Pueblo’s position and promised to respond. “We will reach out to tribal leadership and schedule consultations as soon as possible,” she said. She added that the “needs of all the tribes will be addressed before any action will take place relative to the Valles Caldera.”

Caldera Action, a watchdog group, has been leading the effort for change. Tom Ribe, the executive director for the group, said he appreciated the governor’s concerns. “Our position is that the Pueblo of Jemez has a profound connection to the landscape of the VCNP, one that is recognized in the statute creating the preserve. We understand and support that connection. We are very concerned that the Pueblo of Jemez was not adequately consulted in the development of the NPS study. Caldera Action has always maintained that the Pueblo of Jemez is a very important stakeholder of the preserve.”

The next public meeting of the Valles Caldera National Preserve’s Board of Trustees will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at the Jemez Pueblo Community Resource Center, at 129 B Canal St., from 9 am to noon (click here for a map to the meeting).

The Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 requires that the Board of Trustees (the “Trust”) conduct at least three public meetings per year.

Unfortunately, the Trust has once again decided to schedule another legally-mandated public meeting on a weekday, during business hours.

Only once since April of 2006 have the managers of the Preserve elected to hold a public meeting of the Board of Trustees after business hours, according to the Preserve’s website.

This presents a hardship to the working public who would like to attend these meetings in order to learn more about the management of their Preserve and convey their opinions face-to-face about the future direction of the Caldera with those who have been appointed by the President of the United States to provide stewardship over this taxpayer-owned scenic treasure of Northern New Mexico.

The only time in the past three-and-a-half years that the Trust has chosen to meet after business hours was in June of 2009, when it met from 6-9 PM in Los Alamos. According to an account in the Los Alamos Monitor, this meeting was “standing-room only.” At the time, VallesCaldera.com applauded the Trust for scheduling this meeting at a time convenient to the working public.

In contrast, the most recent meeting, held in Las Cruces (more than 300 miles and a five hour, 20 minute drive from the entrance to the Valles Caldera National Preserve — see map) on a Tuesday morning, was attended by about four members of the public.

To be fair, Preserve staff did hold two evening public meetings last September, in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, designed to solicit input regarding the Trust’s alternatives for possible commercial development on the Preserve. However, these were not meetings of the Board of Trustees and as such did not provide the opportunity for the public to personally interact with the official managers of the Preserve.

The recent National Park Service report on the Valles Caldera noted that the Preserve only permits a “limited level of public access” with activities scheduled at times that are “inconvenient for many” (p. 15). This assessment could just as fairly be applied to the manner in which meetings of the Board of Trustees are scheduled.

During this controversial time in the history of the Preserve, in which our Congressional delegation is considering modifying the legislative framework governing the management of this taxpayer-owned land, it is not time for the Board of Trustees to hide from the public. It is time for open communication between the public, preserve management, and our elected representatives, at times and locations convenient to those who live within the vicinity of the Caldera.

With this in mind, two of the three additional meetings of the Board of Trustees planned for 2010 are an unreasonable distance from the Valles Caldera.  The remaining meetings for this year are as follows:

May 13, 2010 — Farmington (181 miles from the VCNP, a 4 hour and 34 minute drive — see map)
July 21, 2010 — Jemez Springs
Sept. 29, 2010 — Roswell (242 miles from the VCNP, a 5 hour and 52 minute drive — see map)

VallesCaldera.com highly encourages the Board of Trustees to schedule their public meetings in the evening or on weekends, in locations that are a reasonable distance from the Valles Caldera, in order to demonstrate a good-faith effort to include taxpayers in management decisions that will impact the scenic crown jewel of Northern New Mexico for generations.

The Journal North weighed in with a front-page article yesterday covering last week’s release of the NPS report that confirmed the feasibility and suitability of the National Park Service managing the Valles Caldera. A summary of coverage from other New Mexico news sources can be found in the prior post. To read the entire NPS report, click on the link on the top of the right sidebar on your screen.

Click here to read this article in the Journal North (after clicking on the prior link, non-subscribers must click on the “trial premium pass” button on the bottom left of the screen to read the story).

A portion of the story is shown below:

A National Parks Service study has concluded the Valles Caldera would be a good fit for inclusion in the national park system, which could bring in more visitors and help the local economy.
…
This latest report comes two months after the Government Accountability Office issued its own study, which concluded the trust is at least five years behind schedule to become self-sustaining.

If the Caldera were taken out of the trust’s hands and assimilated into the NPS, the new report says, it would probably make more money and accommodate more visitors.

The trust is more limited in when it can allow hikers, bikers, hunters or fishermen to access the preserve.

“Many scheduled activities occur only once a week, making it inconvenient for many,” the report says. “The limited level of public access is reflected in the recorded visitation rates, which are low for such an area of this size and significance.”

Below is some reaction from the New Mexico media regarding last week’s release of the National Park Service’s report endorsing the idea proposed by New Mexico’s U.S. Senators of managing the Valles Caldera as a National Park Preserve. To read that report (PDF), click here. To read the report’s cover letter from the director of the National Park Service (PDF), click here. Click on a headline of an article quoted below to read the article in its entirety.

Santa Fe New Mexican: “Study: Valles Caldera would thrive under park service management”

Bringing the 88,900-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve under National Park Service management could increase visitor numbers and boost the local economy, according to a new study from the federal agency.

The preserve is a good candidate to include in the National Park System because of its national significance as one of the best preserved examples of a resurgent volcano and the probability it could be managed more cost efficiently out of nearby Bandelier National Monument.

Several groups hailed the study as one more reason Congress should move the preserve’s management from the Valles Caldera Trust to the National Park Service.

KUNM-FM (89.9): “National Park Service says it should take Valles Caldera under its wing”

Northern New Mexico’s Valles Caldera may be a step closer to inclusion in the country’s national park system. The U.S. Interior Department has released a report indicating that since the last study conducted on the area in 1979, conditions have become more favorable for the move.

The Interior Department conducted the study as a result of a letter written and co-signed in June by both New Mexico U.S. Senators, Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall. In the letter, the Democrats argued that including the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera in the national park system would offer the best way to safeguard its resources into the future

Associated Press: “Study: Valles worth adding to parks”

A study of northern New Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Preserve says the area is a worthy addition to the National Park Service system. The study – released Thursday by the Park Service – was praised by Audubon New Mexico, the National Audubon Society’s state office.

Los Alamos Monitor: “Park service turns gaze on Valles Caldera”

The Valles Caldera National Preserve’s eligibility to become a national park has been enhanced in recent years by several important changes, according to an updated report prepared for New Mexico’s U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall.

Ironically, two of those changes have been introduced by the Valles Caldera Trust, the preserve’s governing body. The Trust would likely be dissolved should the preserve become a part of the park system, rather than the independently chartered federal corporation that it is now.

Los Alamos County Views: “Valles Caldera NPS Feasibility Study”

A feasibility study by the National Park Service, to determine if the NPS should take over the management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve away from the current Trust that runs the Caldera, has come back extremely positive on doing so!

I’m a big fan of having the NPS take over. I believe the Trust has been a huge debacle for our region, with it’s constantly destabilizing turn-over in politically appointed Trustees, it’s ever shifting directions and priorities, it’s lacking customer/visitor service orientation and it’s exclusive feeling “secret society” way of doing business.