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

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]

In its most recent newsletter to its members, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation (NMWF) weighed in on the proposed management transfer of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service (NPS), to be operated as an NPS preserve.

The NMWF asserted that NPS management of the Preserve would save taxpayers $1 million annually, while “providing “hunters and anglers with additional opportunity to enjoy the high country” in the Jemez Mountains.

According to its website, the NMWF, a 96-year old conservation organization, is “the voice for New Mexico’s conservation-minded sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts in the New Mexico state Legislature and governor’s office, as well as in Congress,” and also “protects your right to responsibly access public lands.”

Click here to download the NMWF’s Winter 2010 newsletter. The article on the VCNP can be read below:

Park Service gives thumbs up for Valles Caldera transfer

Study finds change would save $1 million a year, stimulate economy

The National Park Service has said it is ready, willing and able to take over management of Valles Caldera National Preserve, potentially saving taxpayers $1 million per year and providing hunters and anglers with additional opportunity to enjoy the high country west of Los Alamos.

The study, which had been requested by U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, found that not only would hunting be permissible under management by NPS as a National Preserve, but that hunting would in fact be necessary for proper wildlife management.

The report also found that “opportunities for public enjoyment are not presently achieved,” and that a change in management would provide benefit to the economies of Jemez-area communities.

New Mexico hunters, anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts have long maintained that the preserve limits rather than expands public access. Since its creation in 2000, the preserve has been managed by a politically appointed board of trustees with a mandate from Congress to become financially self-sustaining by 2020.

Last year, NMWF and sportsmen from across the state spoke up to defeat an attempt that would have allowed the trust to charge $10,000 or more for the public to access Valles Caldera for bull elk hunts. In response to that and other attempts to price the average person out of hunting at Valles Caldera, state Sen. Tim Eichenberg sponsored a memorial calling on the New Mexico congressional delegation to hold hearings and transfer management to a natural resource agency in order to expand and protect hunting and fishing opportunity, benefit the local economy and increase management efficiency.

According to the study, NPS management would accomplish all of these goals.

Although the Trust (a federal government corporation now managing the preserve) charges fees for hunting, fishing, cattle grazing and other activities, it has never raised more than $800,000 a year. Its annual operating budget has averaged about $4.8 million in recent years.

With the deadline looming to improve its financial situation, the Trust is considering two wide-ranging development plans. Both call for millions of dollars in public and private funding to build headquarters, luxury hotels, a restaurant, RV park and other facilities. NMWF and others propose instead that Valles Caldera National Preserve be turned over to a public management agency, such as the National Park Service, provided that hunting and fishing opportunity would be expanded.

The NPS already manages several national preserves where hunting is permitted and managed by state game and fish agencies, including the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve in southern Colorado. Valles Caldera was first proposed for consideration as a national park in 1899.

A portion of the area became Bandelier National Monument in 1906, but “Jemez Crater National Park” was proposed again in 1939, according to the report. Yet another proposal arose in 1964 for the “Valle Grande-Bandelier National Park, New Mexico.”

Although NMWF has found strong support among hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts for the idea of transferring Valles Caldera National Preserve to a public land management agency, the Trust that manages the preserve has opposed the idea.

According to the NPS report, the Trust prefers to eliminate the mandate for financial self-sufficiency and continue running the area itself — a plan that, according to the study, would cost taxpayers an extra million dollars per year.

The report says Valles Caldera could be managed out of the current headquarters at Bandelier National Monument, eliminating the need for new offices and infrastructure, saving approximately $1 million per year over the current management model.

Congress has yet to act on the NPS report, but several members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have said they want to hold hearings on the idea of transferring Valles Caldera National Preserve management to a different agency.

To read the NPS report, go to www.nmwildlife.org.

This week, the Valles Caldera and Northern New Mexico were socked by three consecutive winter storms.  Storm totals in the Caldera ranged from 16 inches in the community of Sierra los Piños (nestled within the Caldera outside of the National Preserve) to 28 inches at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area along the Caldera’s western rim (with 52 inches of base depth at mid-mountain).  Sleigh rides continued to be offered at the Valles Caldera National Preserve on Saturdays and Sundays ($30/person, $24/seniors, $15/youth), as well as snowshoeing ($10/adult, $8/seniors, $5/youth).

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.”

The winter recreation season at the Valles Caldera National Preserve will begin on December 26, 2009, according to the Preserve. Currently closed to the public since the summer recreation season ended, the Preserve’s gates will be open daily December 26th through January 3rd, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Subsequently, the gates will be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 AM to 5 PM through March 21, 2010, upon which public access will be closed until the summer recreation season begins (usually in May). The gates will be closed on weekdays during the winter.

The Preserve will be offering two free public appreciation days during the winter recreation season, on December 28th and 29th, during which skiing and snowshoeing will be available to the public for free.

On all other days, skiing and snowshoeing will be offered at the following prices: $10 per adult, $8 per senior (62 years and over), $5 per child (6-15 years) and free for children 5 years old and younger.

Other special events will be offered this winter:

• A New Year’s Eve celebration will be held on Dec. 31 from 6 PM to 1 AM, featuring fireworks, hot cider, and refreshments. Admission to this event will be $25 per adult, $20 per senior (62 years and over), $15 per child (6-15 years) and will be free for children 5 years old and younger.

• Moonlight skiing and snowshoeing will be offered from 6-10 PM on January 30 and February 27. Admission will be $15 per adult, $12 per senior (62 years and over), $10 per child (6-15 years) and will be free for children 5 years old and younger.

• Hour-long sleigh rides will be offered on certain days during the winter recreation season. Check the Preserve’s reservations page for more detailed schedules. Sleigh rides will cost $30 per adult, $24 per senior (62 years and over), $15 per youth (6-15 years) and will be free for kids 5 years and younger.

High Country News, a Colorado-based bi-weekly newspaper that “reports on the West’s natural resources, public lands, and changing communities,” published an update on the controversy surrounding the Valles Caldera National Preserve in its most recent edition. Click here to read the entire article. A portion of the article is included below:

In 2000, when the federal government shelled out $101 million to buy what’s now the Valles Caldera National Preserve, it made one thing clear: The government wouldn’t be the preserve’s cash cow forever. But nine years later, the preserve isn’t close to weaning itself off federal funding, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.

Valles Caldera started as an experiment in public lands management. The 89,000-acre ranch was purchased for preservation, but would be managed as a working ranch by a for-profit government corporation called the Valles Caldera Trust. By 2015, the feds expected the trust to be able to support itself financially, a goal the GAO now says is out of reach…

As HCN reported in 2005, the public was feeling increasingly locked out of a management process that was once inclusive and transparent. Access to the land itself was no better: “[F]ive years after the preserve’s creation, the public has unrestricted access to just two short hiking and ski trails. Hunting is tightly restricted, and even fishing access is determined by a lottery held three times a year.” Now, reports Castinado, access isn’t only controlled, it’s expensive: “You have to pay to play in the preserve or be politically connected to get in.”

Click here to read the whole article in High Country News. You can also read a response to this story by Valles Caldera National Preserve Natural Resources Coordinator Marie Rodriguez immediately following the article.

Yesterday’s edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican featured a story by reporter Staci Matlock about the recent release of a GAO audit of the Valles Caldera Trust. The article begins as follows:

The group charged with managing the Valles Caldera National Preserve is five years behind schedule and suffers from weak planning, a new federal report says.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which released its latest review of the preserve on Oct. 30, notes the Valles Caldera Trust has fallen short in its efforts to meet mandates Congress set for the Jemez Mountains property. Most problems stem from a mandate that the preserve pay for itself and be free of federal financial help by 2015.

The findings likely will bolster a push by a Santa Fe-based group, Caldera Action, to dismantle the trust and place the preserve under National Park Service control.

“Our thoughts on the report is that it confirms what the earlier report shows and that they really haven’t made any progress,” Tom Jervis, a Caldera Action board member, said. “They say they can run the place like a business, but they can’t.”

Jervis also indicated in the article that Caldera Action has collected over 1,500 petition signatures in support of a plan to have the National Park Service assume management of the Valles Caldera as a National Park Preserve. This idea is currently being studied by the NPS at the request of New Mexico’s U.S. Senators, Jeff Bingaman (D) and Tom Udall (D), and is supported by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.

Click here to read the full article.