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

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.

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.”

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.

The National Park Service report commissioned last June by Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall (D-NM) to assess the feasibility of the NPS assuming management of the Valles Caldera as a National Park Service Preserve was submitted to New Mexico’s U.S. Senators on Dec. 29.

VallesCaldera.com is the first outlet to release this report to the public. To read the National Park Service report (PDF), click here. To read the report’s letter of transmittal from National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis (PDF), click here.

The main points contained in the report are:

• “The findings of this update report indicate that the feasibility of the Valles Caldera for inclusion in the national park system has been enhanced since 1979.  The national significance and suitability of the site for inclusion in the system is confirmed” (p. 3).

• “Current uses within the Preserve are generally compatible with those in other preserves or parks in the national park system, and there is untapped potential for enhancing public enjoyment” (p. 29).

• “[T]here is significant public interest and support for transferring management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service” (p. 26-27).

• “Many of the scheduled activities [currently on the Preserve] occur only once a week making it inconvenient for many. 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” (p. 15).

• National Park Service management would likely enhance visitation and provide an economic boost to the local economy:  “The national information system and audience for sites within the national park system would likely contribute to visitation to the Preserve that is higher under NPS management than under the current structure. Overall, increases in regional and national public use of the area are anticipated to result in increased retail sales for recreation and convenience goods locally, as well as an increased volume of recreational, tourist, and other services. Increased expenditures for expanded operation and maintenance activities will generate purchases of goods and services in the local economy. Increased circulation of money in nearby communities could effectively stimulate growth in the area, benefitting the socioeconomic environment.  Small scale tour operators in the surrounding area could benefit more under NPS management, due to a more open access policy typical of NPS sites. Under the Trust’s management, cost recovery through fee based recreational activities is likely to continue, precluding this competing business opportunity for area operators” (p. 28).

• Overall federal expenditures could decrease, and efficiency could increase, by consolidating Preserve resources with those of Bandelier National Monument: “The need for new management offices and associated infrastructure for the Preserve would be reduced or even eliminated if management of the Valles Caldera is accomplished largely out of facilities already present at Bandelier National Monument.  A single management entity for Valles Caldera and Bandelier would enhance communication and integration of management programs that require a regional approach such as fire management, law enforcement, and emergency response, and would facilitate comprehensive management of resource issues that affect both the Preserve and Bandelier National Monument”  (p. 28).

U.S. District Judge Robert Brack has ruled that the portion of the mineral rights that were not sold to the American people when the Valles Caldera National Preserve was was established in 2000 are worth $3.8 million, according to a story in today’s Albuquerque Journal. Click here to read the full story (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 article).

When the Baca Ranch was purchased in 2000 for $101 million, the federal government was able to negotiate a mutually acceptable price for the purchase of only 87.5% of the mineral rights to the land.

Concerned that the owners of the remaining 12.5% of the mineral rights might seek to build a geothermal power plant on the National Preserve, the U.S. government condemned these mineral rights in 2006. However, that action required that the owners of the interests be compensated, but the parties had been unable to establish a fair compensation price: the U.S. government initially offered the owners $1.8 million, but the owners asserted that the value of these rights was $14 million. Brack also ruled that the government pay an additional $50,000 in legal costs.

This news is a postscript to the era of geothermal exploration on the Baca Ranch/VCNP, which began in 1960 when an oil test well was built on the western base of Redondo Peak that did not strike oil, but instead struck superheated water (Anschutz and Merlan, 2007). After several more geothermal exploration wells were built in the 1960s, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy, Union Oil of California, and Public Service Company of New Mexico was formed in July of 1978 to assess the feasibility of building a geothermal power plant on the ranch. The partnership drilled 20 deep wells, but determined that a potential power plant built there could only generate 20 megawatts of electricity, despite the hope at the outset that it could generate up to 400 megawatts. Consequently, the project was disbanded in 1982. In total, about 40 geothermal test wells were drilled on the Baca Ranch through 1983 (Anschutz and Merlan, 2007). Sealed wells can be seen to this day on the Preserve in Redondo Canyon as well as Alamo Canyon.

Click here to read the entire chapter, “Industrial Mineral Extraction and Geothermal Exploration,” from the U.S. government publication More Than a Scenic Mountain Landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve Land Use History, by Kurt F. Anschutz and Thomas Merlan, published into the public domain in 2007. To download other chapters of this book, click here.

For more information on the geothermal characteristics of the Valles Caldera, check out the following articles:

Geothermal Potential of Valles Caldera, New Mexico (PDF), by Fraser Goff. GHC Bulletin, Dec. 2002.

Valles Caldera Scientific Drilling, by Fraser Goff and Jeffrey M. Heikoop. Geotimes, Mar. 2004.

Finally, a sizable amount of information on the overall geology of the Caldera can be found on VallesCaldera.com’s Geology page.

The Valles Caldera National Preserve has announced that the next public meeting of the Valles Caldera National Preserve Board of Trustees will be held on January 27th at Jemez Pueblo. The exact location and time have yet to be announced. The dates and host towns for the remaining Trust meetings of 2010 have also been disclosed:

May 13 – Farmington
July 21 – Jemez Springs (Valles Caldera National Preserve administrative offices)
Sept. 29 – Roswell