NM Senators Ask National Park Service to Consider Takeover of Valles Caldera National Preserve

June 25, 2009 - New Mexico Senators Udall and Bingaman jointly announced that they have asked the National Park Service (NPS) to study the Valles Caldera National Preserve for inclusion in the national park system as a Preserve where hunting and fishing would continue.

Though the senators are considering other agency options for the Preserve, the National Park Service is the top contender for many reasons.

The Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) in the Jemez Mountains is one of the most troubled and controversial pieces of public land in the United States. This “experiment in public land management” is nearing its end, and the results of the experiment cry out for a complete overhaul – new legislation to make the Preserve truly public and protect it from the threat of commercialization and development.

In 2000, when the federal government purchased the VCNP, a compromise was struck between those who didn’t want more public land in New Mexico and those who wanted the VCNP protected as federal land with high environmental standards. Rather than setting up the Preserve under an agency like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Park Service, a “Trust” was created to manage the Preserve as a “government corporation” (like the Post Office) overseen by a board of mostly private-sector Trustees appointed by the White House to four-year terms. These nine Trustees supervise a staff and together they struggle under a mandate to become “financially self-sufficient” by 2015. If they fail, the Preserve would be turned over to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). No other piece of wild western land has this structure and, frankly, it’s not working.

Numerous problems plague the VCNP. However, the demand for “financial self sufficiency” drives most planning on the Preserve, not public access needs. While the public demands low-cost access for hiking and winter sports, the Trustees propose building high-end lodges, new roads, RV parks, and high-fee hunting trips. Were they to succeed with such developments, they would still fall far short of financial self-sufficiency.

The VCNP Trust is basically reinventing public land management but with politically appointed businessmen and women taking the place of professionals. The results have been troubling. Trust decisions are made in closed meetings, there is no agency to supervise the Trust and no agency in Washington to advocate for its needs. The new Executive Director, who lacks any public land experience, complains about “government mandates.”

A public group called Caldera Action was formed in 2007 to focus on protecting the VCNP. We have given up on the Trust model and are working vigorously to have the Preserve transferred to the National Park Service as the 19th Preserve managed by that agency where hunting and fishing would continue but the land would receive high quality visitation and resources management. The NPS is an expert agency at protecting high-value landscapes.

An informal coalition of organizations is forming to promote a bill presented to Congress to transfer the VCNP to the NPS. This coalition so far includes the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Audubon New Mexico, WildEarth Guardians, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, New Mexico Trout, and others.

The senators’ new call for the National Park Service to study the VCNP for management is a huge positive step but the public must remain vigilant and increasingly involved by writing Congress, talking to your friends about the issue, and keeping an eye on developments. We hope to see the Park Service arrowhead gracing the VCNP entry sign in 2010, and with plenty of active Sierrans, we will.

For more information, contact Tom Ribe, president of Caldera Action (505/982-4464, tribe@swadventures.com), or visit www.caldera-action.org. —Tom Ribe