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

UPDATE: Aug. 21– The Albuquerque Journal reported Saturday that the total amount that will be awarded for the Southwest Jemez Mountains Collaborative Forest Restoration Project will be up to $40 million (the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week reported this amount to be $392,000). Click here to read the Journal article (non-subscribers must click on the “trial access pass” button to read this story). The article points out that the preferred density in a ponderosa pine forest is between 40 and 60 trees per acre. In much of the area targeted by the project, there are between 1,200 and 1,800 trees on each acre, and in some spots there are more than 2,000 trees per acre. This problem will be mitigated by this project through thinning on 90,000 acres and prescribed burns on 76,000 acres of the Santa Fe National Forest and Valles Caldera National Preserve.

ORIGINAL POST: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced last week the funding of ten forest restoration projects throughout the nation, including the Southwest Jemez Mountains Collaborative Forest Restoration Project, for which a total of $392,000 will be awarded to the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Below is some information from the Department of Agriculture regarding the Southwest Jemez Mountains project:

The Southwest Jemez Mountains area is 210,000 acres, 93 percent of which is divided between the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera Trust-Valles National Preserve. The project will improve the resilience of ecosystems to recover from wildfires and other natural disturbance and sustain healthy forests and watersheds. This will be accomplished by thinning and prescribed burning to restore more natural fire regimes. Additional project components include streambank stabilization, invasive plant control, road and trail decommissioning, riparian and wildlife habitat improvement, conservation education, and rehabilitation, closure, and improvement of roads.

UPDATE: July 21, 2010 — The Valles Caldera Trust has announced that it will conduct a public meeting on Thursday, August 12th from 5:30-8:00 PM to discuss this landscape restoration and management plan, at the Preserve’s Science and Education Center at 90 Villa Louis Martin in Jemez Springs.

On Friday, a notice appeared on the Federal Register that had been submitted on July 8, 2010 by the Valles Caldera Trust, titled: “Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Long-Term Landscape Restoration and Management Plan To Restore and Manage the Forest, Grassland, and Riparian Ecosystems of the Valles Caldera National Preserve.”

You can read this 1,860-word notice by clicking here.

The accompanying summary of the notice is as follows:

The Valles Caldera Trust (VCT) a wholly owned government corporation empowered to provide management and administrative services for the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze and disclose the potential impacts of a proposed Landscape Restoration and Management Plan (LRMP) which includes mechanical treatments, prescribed burning, management of lightning caused wildland fires (wildland fire use), restoration or riparian areas, closure and maintenance of roads and eradication of noxious weeds and invasive plants.

The Trust requests comments on this notice by August 18, 2010, at comments@vallescaldera.gov.

President Obama this week announced his intent to nominate Melissa Savage and C. Kenneth Smith to two of the three empty seats on the nine-member Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The board now consists of four members appointed by George W. Bush, two members appointed by Obama, two ex-officio members, and one vacant seat.

This news comes ten months after it was first reported by the Los Alamos Monitor that Savage and Smith were recommended by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to Obama to fill these two seats. One additional individual that the Monitor last year reported had been endorsed by Bingaman to join the board, Ray Powell, did not end up being nominated. This is almost certainly because Powell, the former executive director of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, is now running for New Mexico Commissioner for Public Lands (an office he had previously held for two terms). Consequently, one seat on the board will remain empty until Obama appoints someone to fill the vacancy.

According to Smith, no Senate confirmation is needed for himself and Savage to assume their places on the board — just a presidential nomination.

Below is the official announcement from the White House:

Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:
…
Melissa Savage, Appointee for Member, Board of Directors of the Valles Caldera Trust — 
Dr. Melissa Savage is the director of the Four Corners Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides scientific advice to communities restoring their natural environments. She is also a forest geographer with a specialty in fire ecology and the southwestern conifer ecosystems. Dr. Savage is an Emerita Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles and is now an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico.  Dr. Savage holds a M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D in Geography from the University of Colorado.

C. Kenneth Smith, Appointee for Member, Board of Directors of the Valles Caldera Trust
 — Dr. C. Kenneth Smith is an associate professor of Forestry and Geology at the University of the South in Tennessee.  He is active in regional water issues and serves on the board of the Sewanee Utility District. Dr. Smith previously served as the director of New Mexico’s Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM. He also spent three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa, conducting forest research and management projects.  Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of Florida, and his B.S. from Colorado State University.

For Christmas Eve, we take a moment to experience the Valles Caldera through the eyes of a boy, Friday Barthuli, who at the time this was created was nine years old:

The Santa Fe New Mexican published an op-ed Saturday by Phillip A. Young, a “retired National Park Service senior special agent and former State Historic Preservation Division archaeologist and SiteWatch coordinator who lives in Santa Fe.” Young asserts in his op-ed his support for a National Park Service takeover of the Valles Caldera.

The Valles Caldera Trust has been soliciting opinions, and I think it would make an excellent addition to our National Park system. The preserve is next to the National Park Service’s Bandelier National Monument, and it has extensive experience with national preserves, managing them from Alaska to Florida.

The enabling legislation asked the trust to seek financial self-sustainability in 15 years. They have tried to manage the preserve in a manner to achieve that objective; it has fallen short. Most public lands and open space do not generate the income needed to be self-sufficient.

Public lands and preserves provide opportunities for encounters with our heritage and for the soul: wildlife, the peace of quiet, the lung-full of fresh clean air, the azure sky. These direct benefits are worthy of public cost. The preserve could also benefit gateway communities like Jemez Springs. Sustainable economic opportunities abound around our open lands in tours, lodging, restaurants, etc.

Click here to read the full op-ed.