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

Matt Gagnon, a student at the University of New Mexico who is pursuing a graduate degree in geography, is conducting a thesis study regarding folks’ perceptions of, and aspirations for, recreation access to the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The study is titled “Management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve: the Recreationist Perspective.” 

One aspect of his study consists of the enviable task of spending parts of his summer in the Jemez Mountains and asking people — both visitors and locals — to fill out a survey that quantifies what they’d like in terms of future management of the Preserve in terms of recreation offerings and access.

His survey can also easily be filled out online. Anyone with an interest in outdoor recreation on the Preserve can fill it out. The anonymous survey shouldn’t take respondents more than ten minutes.

Please take some time and fill out this survey. Not only will it assist a grad student with his thesis, but it will contribute a great deal of insight to what the public wants in terms of future management of our National Preserve.

Mr. Gagnon’s cover letter describing his study can be read here.

You can fill out the survey by clicking here.

The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) today released a draft environmental impact statement regarding its new Travel Management Plan, which includes five alternatives for managing where the public can drive motorized vehicles in the forest. The alternatives would eliminate between 47% and 63% of the Forest’s currently open roads (except for alternative one, which would do nothing). The SFNF also announced eight public meetings throughout Northern New Mexico in August to receive public comment about today’s released documents.

Also today, Daniel Jirón, the supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest, announced that he is leaving his post to serve as the Deputy Regional Forest Supervisor for the Pacific Southwest Region, according to Staci Matlock of the Santa Fe New Mexican. Deputy forest supervisor Erin Connelly will serve as the interim supervisor for the SFNF. Click here to read Ms. Matlock’s article.

The Supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest is automatically an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, so Mr. Jirón will also be departing from his position with the Preserve’s Board and will be replaced by Ms. Connelly. However, in practice, ex-officio members of the Board have had very little power relative to the politically-appointed members of the Board.

The Santa Fe National Forest manages 1.6 million acres of forest in Northern New Mexico, including most of land surrounding the Valles Caldera National Preserve, and about 20% of the geologic Valles Caldera itself.

Read the entire Draft Environmental Impact Statement by clicking here.

Access all of the documents released today by the SFNF by clicking here.

Read today’s press release from the Santa Fe National Forest (containing the five Travel Management Plan alternatives as well as details on the eight public meetings that the SFNF will conduct in August) by clicking here.

Continue reading ‘Between 47% and 63% of Santa Fe National Forest’s open roads could be closed under Travel Management Plan; eight public meetings planned for Aug.; Jirón departs as supervisor’

William DeBuys, who from 2001 to 2004 served as the founding chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, wrote an editorial this week on the New West website advocating passage of the legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall that would transfer management of the Valles Caldera to the National Park Service and dissolve the Valles Caldera Trust.

Mr. DeBuys, among whose books is Valles Caldera: A Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve, wrote this piece in response to this week’s editorial written by Courtney White that was titled “A Step Backward: the Valles Caldera National Park.”  Mr. White’s piece argues against the legislation and questions whether the late Stewart Udall, who served as Secretary of the Interior under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (and is the father of Sen. Tom Udall), would have supported the bill that his son co-sponsored.  Click here to read Mr. DeBuys’ piece.

Mr. DeBuys includes some compelling insight, revealing that he visited with Stewart Udall a month before his death in March, and according to Mr. DeBuys, Mr. Udall “expressed deep satisfaction that introduction of the bill was imminent.”

Below is a portion of the editorial, headlined “Valles Caldera: What Would Stewart Udall Think?”

Courtney White has my sympathy. He regrets that the land management “experiment” of the Valles Caldera Trust should be abandoned. I share his regret, but not his conclusion. It is time for all of us to face facts and not entangle the fate of a peerless natural landscape in dreamy notions about “new approaches.” The caldera has been the subject of a new approach for nearly a decade. It hasn’t worked.
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Lamentably, the complex and conflicted mission with which the Trust was charged has produced paralysis, not synthesis, and the public is understandably frustrated by the conspicuous lack of both progress and access at the preserve.

The trust would have better served its fortunes in recent years by focusing its energies on building a broad public constituency; ultimately, its failure is not that it cannot be self-sufficient in dollars, but that the people it should be serving have failed to care sufficiently about it. As a result, the enormous reservoir of public goodwill with which the Trust started its journey has largely been consumed. Let’s move on.

Mr. White’s assertion that the “national park idea… is not well-suited for the onrushing, global challenges of the 21st century” is nonsense, and it is offensive that he should utter this foolishness in reference to Stewart Udall. If Stewart were still alive, he would be the first to say that the national park idea has proved adaptable and enduring, not least in lands beyond the borders of the United States where the defense of the natural world is led by citizens with sharper vision than Mr. White’s. The national park idea continues to represent one of the best strategies yet devised for protecting the environmental commons against the relentless push to privatize and exploit the earth’s goods.

Making the Valles Caldera National Preserve a unit of the National Park System will assure the protection and effective stewardship of an extraordinary place. New Mexico Senators Bingaman and Udall are demonstrating realism and leadership in championing the necessary legislation. Their bill would permit continued grazing and hunting on the preserve, and it also calls for continuation of the preserve’s science and education program, one of the signal achievements of the Trust’s early years. When I last saw Stewart Udall, about a month before he passed away, he expressed deep satisfaction that introduction of the bill was imminent.

A pair of clashing editorials regarding the recently-introduced legislation to transfer the Valles Caldera to the National Park Service have been published in the last week.

The first, in favor of keeping the current management structure at the Preserve and entitled “A step back for Valles Caldera,” was written by Santa Fe resident and 2007 Caldera cattle grazer Courtney White. Mr. White is founder of the Quivira Coalition, whose goal is to “build bridges among ranchers, conservationists, scientists and public land managers around concepts of progressive cattle management, innovative stewardship and improved land health.”

The second, entitled “Valles Caldera Bill a Step Forward,” which favors the legislation, was penned by Roger G. Kennedy, who served as director of the National Park Service in the 1990s.

Mr. White’s piece, which you can read by clicking here, was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican, as well as on the New West website. The conclusion of his piece is quoted below:

Continue reading ‘Former Park Service director clashes with recent Preserve cattle grazer in opposing editorials debating Valles Caldera legislation’

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.

The editors of the Journal North weighed in today on the legislation introduced by Sens. Bingaman and Udall on May 27 to transfer the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service by calling it “a good idea, but a few questions remain.”  Click here to read this editorial (after clicking on this link, non-subscribers to the Journal must click on the “trial access pass” button in the lower left of the screen to read it).

While supportive of this legislation overall, the editorial board primarily questions the aspect of the legislation that stipulates that cattle grazing “may” be allowed “in areas of the Preserve in which grazing was permitted during the grazing season preceding the date of enactment of this act, and to the extent that the use furthers scientific research or interpretation of the ranching history of the Preserve.”

“It’s been amply demonstrated that cattle grazing is not a significant moneymaker for the preserve,” the editors state.  “Moreover, it could be argued that the continued representation of ranching interests on the preserve board has obstructed efforts to expand recreational access to the 89,000-acre property for the general public, which has been steadily clamoring for more opportunities to visit in the 10 years since purchase.”

The Journal North deems the call for both grazing and recreation “the trickiest part of the senators’ proposal (as anyone whose National Forest campsite has ever been invaded by a small herd of legally wandering cows can attest).”

However, the editors conclude by indicating their strong overall support for this legislation, declaring that “turning the preserve over to the Park Service is the right idea, and Congress should get behind the bill.”

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Edward Olona of Springer wrote a letter to the Albuquerque Journal about the Valles Caldera legislation that was published yesterday, stating that “for hunters like myself, we can rest easy now that hunting is guaranteed under the new legislation, and we will no longer have to fight to try and keep the current failed management from trying to charge us outrageous fees of over $10,000 to hunt our own public land…this action by our senators ensures that citizens of the Land of Enchantment will all be able to enjoy this spectacular, God-given land for ourselves and future generations.”  Click here to read this letter.

The Journal also printed a letter by Oscar Simpson of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation yesterday, who asserted that “it is time to put the Valles Caldera under new management, and I commend Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall for doing the right thing for the citizens of New Mexico. It is also important that their legislation guarantees that traditional activities like hunting and fishing will continue under NPS management.”  Click here to read the letter.

In a legislative move that could herald the endgame of the 111-year-long effort by New Mexicans for the National Park Service to protect and administer the Valles Caldera for the American people, U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced a bill yesterday that would transfer the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the Park Service.

UPDATE 5/31: This bill has been read on the Senate floor and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (which Sen. Bingaman chairs). Read this legislation by clicking here.  The bill (the “Valles Caldera National Preserve Management Act,” S.3452), additionally specifies the following:

• Hunting and fishing will be permitted
• Grazing “may” be allowed “in areas of the Preserve in which grazing was permitted during the grazing season preceding the date of enactment of this act, and to the extent that the use furthers scientific research or interpretation of the ranching history of the preserve”
• Immediately upon passage the Secretary of the Interior will have sole management responsibility of the preserve.  Within 180 days of passage, the Valles Caldera Trust will be terminated, at which time the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 will also be repealed (but this 180 period can be extended if the Secretary of Agriculture “determines that the termination date should be extended to facilitate the transitional management of the preserve”)
• The NPS will, to the maximum extent practicable, coordinate preserve operations with those of Bandelier National Monument
• A comprehensive management plan (which was never prepared by the Trust) will be produced within three years
• The feasibility of creating a Caldera Rim Trail (inside the boundaries of both the preserve and Santa Fe National Forest) will be studied within three years of passage
• The preserve’s universally-acclaimed science and education program will be continued until the aforementioned management plan is prepared, at which time the NPS will establish a new science and education program
• The NPS may establish a science and education facility outside of the boundaries of the preserve (enabling the continuation of the VCNP’s new science and education center)
• All volcanic domes above 9,250 feet will be protected from the construction of roads and facilities, and they will also be protected from motorized access
• The NPS will ensure the protection of traditional and cultural sites in the preserve (as well as access to these sites by pueblo members) and may “temporarily close to general public use one or more specific areas of the preserve to protect traditional cultural and customary uses”
• The boundaries of the Santa Fe National Forest will be modified to exclude the preserve
• All Trust employees will be retained for at least 180 days after the passage of this legislation, at which time the NPS may hire them on a noncompetitive basis for comparable positions at the Valles Caldera or elsewhere in the NPS or Forest Service in New Mexico

Below is the joint press release issued by Bingaman and Udall (which you can also read by clicking here):

U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall today introduced legislation to transfer the management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service.

The bill follows on a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) mandated by the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 and a feasibility study from the National Park Service requested by the two senators.

The GAO reports that the Preserve is at least five years behind schedule in the development of an effective management control system and that the requirement to achieve financial self-sustainability by 2015 is the Trust’s biggest challenge and will be difficult to achieve. It also notes that the revenue enhancement study commissioned by the Trust estimated the need for at least $21 million for infrastructure improvements to support greater public access.

The National Park Service study, which was requested by Bingaman and Udall, determines the Valles Caldera meets the high criteria for inclusion in the National Park System as a National Preserve. In particular, the report highlighted the nationally significant geologic resources found in the area.

The Senators’ bill directs the Park Service to take over management in a way that protects the Preserve’s natural and cultural resources. Hunting, fishing, and cattle grazing would be permitted under the bill. Additionally, the measure strengthens protections for tribal cultural and religious sites and ensures access by pueblos to the area.

“The Valles Caldera is not only one of the most stunning places in New Mexico, it’s one of the most beautiful places in our country. That is why I worked so hard to bring it into public ownership,” Bingaman said. “I believe it is the perfect candidate for the National Park System.”

“For centuries the Valles Caldera has stood out as the icon of the Jemez Mountains,” said Udall. “As one of the largest volcanic calderas in the world, the vast grass-filled valleys, forested hillsides, and numerous volcanic peaks make the Valles Caldera a treasure to New Mexico, and a landscape of national significance millions of years in the making. It is clearly worthy of National Park Service status.”

The first calls to bring the Valles Caldera into the National Park System were in 1899. In four separate studies throughout the next century the Park Service found that the area was suitable for protective status under its management. But it wasn’t until 2000 that Bingaman, former Senator Pete Domenici and then-Representative Udall were successful in acquiring the property for $100 million. The law also established an experimental management framework where a Board of Trustees would manage the Preserve as a working ranch with public access, with the goal of becoming financially self-sustaining by 2015.

“Although the Valles Caldera Trust has done its best to fulfill the original legislative directives, time has shown in my opinion that this management framework is not the best suited for the long-term management of the Preserve,” Bingaman said. “I believe that the desire for increased public access balanced with the need to protect and interpret the Preserve’s unique cultural and natural resources would be best served by the National Park Service.”

“As Senator Bingaman and I take steps today to begin a transition of the Valles Caldera into the National Park System, I want to applaud the decade of work that the Board of Trustees, the Valles Caldera Trust and the preserve employees have invested in this unmatched natural resource,” said Udall. “As we look to the future, we do so with respect to the longstanding grazing, educational, and once-in-a-lifetime hunting opportunities that are cherished and valued by so many New Mexicans. By utilizing the resources and skills within the National Park Service, the Valles Caldera National Preserve will continue to prosper as a natural wonder full of significant geology, ecology, history and culture.”

The measure will be sent to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs. A hearing could be scheduled as soon as next month.

News of the introduction of this legislation has already been covered widely by the media. Click below to read the media’s coverage:

Associated Press (covered here by KRQE-TV): “Valles Caldera may move to Park Service; Bill introduced Thursday”

Santa Fe New Mexican: “Local news in brief May 28, 2010; Valles Caldera transfer bill introduced”

Albuquerque Journal: “Bill Would Move Valles Caldera to Park Service; Management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve would be transferred”

New Mexico Independent: “U.S. Park Service may take over Valles Caldera preserve”

Los Alamos Monitor: “Bingaman and Udall introduce bills; Legislation would transfer Valles Caldera management to the National Park Service”

The Valles Caldera National Preserve has opened to the public for its summer recreation season. The gates to the preserve will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m, seven days a week. Click here to learn about specific activities offered by the preserve. You can also check out VallesCaldera.com’s Visitor’s Guide for information on other activities on the Valles Caldera (outside of the preserve), as well as other attractions elsewhere in the Jemez Mountains.

The Valles Caldera National Preserve has an account on Twitter, as does the Santa Fe National Forest and Pajarito Ski Hill (although, apparently, Bandelier National Monument does not). The Valles Caldera has 61 followers on the social networking site, while Santa Fe National Forest has 354 followers and Pajarito Ski Hill has 85. You can follow any of these three Caldera-related Twitter pages by clicking on the links included above.

After a hiatus of a couple of months (coinciding with the two-month spring lockdown of the Valles Caldera National Preserve), the Preserve tweeted some newsworthy information today (in 140 characters or less):

May 12:

Summer season opens May 22. Operating hours will be 8 AM to 6:30 PM. http://www.vallescaldera.gov

May 12:

Star gazing event at the Preserve May 15 at 9 PM. Cost is $20/adult, $16/senior, $10/youth. http://www.vallescaldera.gov

Garrett Veneklasen, the chairman of the outdoorsman organization Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, wrote an op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal this past weekend throwing his support behind a proposed transfer of management of the Valles Caldera to the National Park Service.

Entitled “Managers of Preserve Want Status Quo,” the op-ed also responds to the story written in the Journal North earlier this month in which the management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve claimed that its science and recreation programs would be at risk if the Park Service took over (sentiments which were dismissed the next day by the Journal North editorial board as “less than convincing,” “hard to believe,” and “laughable”).

Click here to read this op-ed (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 piece is included below:

The recent story about Valles Caldera National Preserve’s new science program for visiting students, “Programs at Risk,” was missing a few important elements, including a healthy dose of skepticism.

Preserve Executive Director Gary Bratcher told the Journal that the new education programs would evaporate if the National Park Service or U.S. Forest Service took over operations at Valles Caldera. But a quick online check shows the preserve’s neighbor, Bandelier National Monument, hosts a wide range of educational and scientific research programs. Most national parks do, and there is no reason to think such programs wouldn’t continue at Valles Caldera, regardless which agency takes the reins.

Bratcher also says that under National Park Service or Forest Service management, other programs would cease, leaving “only hiking and camping.”

But the National Park Service study says the the agency believes “public access and recreational opportunities would be expanded under NPS management….” The study goes on to note, “There is untapped potential for enhancing public enjoyment” of Valles Caldera preserve.
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Access and the opportunity to enjoy the magnificent Valles Caldera would actually improve if operations were transferred to a public lands management agency. Such a move would benefit the public, reduce costs — similar-sized Park Service units with similar numbers of employees cost a little over $2 million a year — and stimulate the economy for Jemez-area businesses through increased visitation.

It is clear from the Journal story that Mr. Bratcher and other top Valles Caldera managers desperately want to maintain their quiet, well-funded operation. Perhaps a better headline than “Programs at Risk” would have been “Status Quo at Risk.”