NMWF at work
Valles Caldera at a crossroads
Valles Caldera National Preserve was created as part of our National Forest system in 2000 with overwhelming public support in New Mexico. However, in order to appease anti-public lands sentiments in Congress at the time, an experimental management system was created that calls for the 89,000-acre tract to be managed by a federal government corporation overseen by political appointees instead of by a professional natural resource agency. The experimental Caldera plan, modeled after the Presidio, an urban area in San Francisco, is supposed to raise its own operating revenue.
That goal has always been elusive. The preserve has never come close to raising its $4 million-plus annual operating budget. Now, however, plans have been unveiled to drastically commercialize the Valles Caldera, putting access to this public lands jewel even further out of reach of everyday citizens. Last year, the preserve’s board of trustees unveiled a revenue enhancement plan that envisions a dramatic makeover of the Valles Caldera, including construction of new lodges, semi-permanent tent camps for high-priced “glamorous camping” or “glamping,” and further privatization of hunting opportunity.
The plan spells out two alternatives to meet the preserve’s goal to try to become financially self-sufficient by 2015. One proposes more than $50 million in public and private development. It includes a luxury lodge with around 20 rooms, another mid-priced lodge and restaurant with about 100 rooms, campground space and an RV park for about 50 - all operated by concessionaires. The second alternative eliminates the lodges and restaurant, which reduces development costs but provides less revenue. Both plans call for raising additional funds through the sale of $16,000 elk tags - an idea already shot down by the Legislature. A financial centerpiece of both plans is “green burial” - the sale of funeral plots in backcountry settings. Neighboring pueblos have already voiced opposition to that idea.
Click here to read the Valles Caldera revenue enhancement plan. Click here to read the Albuquerque Journal story on the plan (you may have to watch a short ad first.)
But even as the Valles Caldera Trust considers unprecedented commercial expansion, sportsmen and others are encouraging Congress to return the preserve to its roots. They want Congress to revise the long-term management strategy for Valles Caldera and put a professional natural resource agency in charge of management. At the request of U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, the National Park Service analyzed the idea of turning over Valles Caldera operations to the NPS. The agency said it could manage the preserve—at a savings to U.S. taxpayers of $1 million a year. Click here to read the study.
The state Senate last year called for congressional hearings and a new direction for the preserve. It approved Senate Memorial 32, sponsored by Sen. Tim Eichenberg of Albuquerque, that says the experimental management system for the preserve “will never generate adequate funding without developing, and thereby destroying, the Valles Caldera itself.” Click here to read the memorial.
Freelance writer David Menicucci wrote an excellent opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal echoing NMWF’s stance—that Congress should turn over the preserve to another federal agency to manage, thus ensuring that public hunting and fishing opportunities and wildlife management will improve and be better managed. Click here to read his op-ed piece.
The Journal followed up with an editorial calling for similar action. Click here to read the editorial.
The preserve’s chief scientist, Bob Parmenter, has told The Associated Press that the preserve can’t make money with the tools it has—through cattle, timber harvesting and hunting fees. Click here to read the story.
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have said they plan to hold hearings on revising the management strategy for Valles Caldera. Stay tuned so you can have a say in the future of the preserve. In the meantime, click here to read the original document from Congress that created Valles Caldera National Preserve.