Board Seeks Comment on Valles Caldera National Preserve
Associated Press
SANTA FE — The board that manages the Valles Caldera plans to ask the public for suggestions for long-term recreation and access to the 89,000-acre national wilderness preserve.
Comments will be collected during at least four workshops in different communities, starting early next year, said Jeffrey Cross, executive director of the Valles Caldera Trust.
Staff members and the board will use the public's ideas to help plan for facilities, infrastructure and programs needed at the preserve, he said.
Between 9,000 and 11,000 people visit the preserve each year to fish, hunt, ride a horse-drawn wagon and hike, according to staff estimates.
Cross said one of the questions the board will tackle is how many people the preserve can support.
Congress bought the former Baca Ranch west of Los Alamos for $101 million in 2000. The preserve includes mountain vistas, miles of trout waters and forest trails, elk herds and a vast ancient collapsed volcano known as the Valles Grande.
While a cattle ranch, about 300 people visited the land.
A unique management arrangement calls for the preserve to remain a working ranch and to be self-supporting by 2015.
Activities on the preserve generated about $502,000 in fiscal year 2005-06 — a long way from covering the trust's annual $3.6 operating budget.
Hunting brought in the most money with $307,000, followed by fishing with about $60,000 and special events with $38,000.
Cross said the board is preparing its first "State of the Preserve,'' a report due every five years to Congress. A draft of the report will be sent out next year for comment before a final version is complete in August, he said.
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