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Friday, April 10, 2009
Advocacy Groups Condemn Valles Caldera Plans
By Raam Wong
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — Two advocacy groups are charging that managers of the Valles Caldera are trying to "commercialize" the national preserve.
The complaints came Thursday just days after the Valles Caldera Trust released a study suggesting a number of money-making ideas for the spectacular Jemez Mountain preserve. The trust has until 2015 to become financially self-sufficient under a congressionally-imposed deadline.
The ideas under consideration include horseback rides and van tours, auctions of a handful of elk permits, luxurious safari-style camps and on-site lodges, including one where rooms could go for between $550 and $730 per night.
"The trustees are pursuing a highly destructive course of action here and one that is not supported by the people of the United States," said Tom Ribe of the group Caldera Action. "The reason a broad range of people pressed Congress to purchase the Baca Ranch in 1999 was to prevent exactly this sort of inappropriate commercial development on this nationally important, delicate landscape."
Spokesman Terry McDermott said the Trust shares the group's concerns about protecting the preserve. "We are good stewards of the caldera," he said. "And we're also required by law to make it as self-sufficient as possible."
Founded in 2007, Caldera Action replaced Valles Caldera Coalition, which helped lobby Congress to purchase the 89,000-acre property from ranching interests.
The group's concerns highlight a central challenge that has emerged in the management of the preserve. The preserve is viewed as an experiment in public lands management. Congress imposed the 2015 self-sufficiently deadline and ordered that the preserve continue as a "working ranch."
John Horning of WildEarth Guardians said, "The (preserve) was an experiment in public lands management. After nearly a decade it's clear to us that the experiment has failed."
Both advocacy groups want Congress to replace management of the trust with the National Park Service, "allowing hunting, fishing and quiet recreation and a high level of protection for the natural and cultural resources on this nationally significant landscape."
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