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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Programs at Risk
By Phil Parker
Journal Staff Writer
JEMEZ SPRINGS — On March 14, a new educational center for the Valles Caldera National Preserve will welcome its first field-tripping high schoolers. Lake Forest (Illinois) High School students will spend a week gathering biological materials in the Valles Caldera and analyzing them with state-of-the-art lab equipment.
But it's just those types of programs that could be lost if the preserve is taken over by the U.S. Forest or Park Service, according to the current managers.
Housed in the renovated former retirement home of the Servants of the Paraclete, the center will offer a new era of educational opportunities through the Valles Caldera. But it's not clear what would happen to it if a federal agency took over the preserve's operations, as has been suggested by some people.
Under the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000, the 88,900-acre Valles Caldera has been managed by a nine-member board of trustees, even though the former cattle ranch was bought with tax dollars.
The board was tasked with protecting the sprawling collapsed volcano and providing recreation while also moving toward self-sufficiency by 2015.
But last year, a study by the Government Accountability Office asserted the Caldera is at least five years behind that timetable. Another study, commissioned by the National Park Service, concluded the Valles Caldera would be a good fit for its system.
Gary Bratcher, executive director at the Caldera, said it's always been obvious the area would be an excellent addition to the NPS. But he said he wants management to continue as is, allowing staff to work to expand opportunities for education and recreation.
"If the law's wrong," he said, "then that's what needs to be changed. Don't throw us to the National Park or National Forest Service. Fix the law."
Board members have also supported removing the requirement that the Valles Caldera become self-sufficient. Its annual operating budget is about $3.5 million, while revenue generated there, mostly through recreation and grazing fees, amounts to about $800,000 per year.
But if Congress could continue to appropriate funds, as it has since 2000, while keeping the unique management structure intact, Bratcher said the Valles Caldera could expand its already-growing programs.
"What will you cut out if you (a federal agency) take over?" he asks, then answers: "Everything but hiking and camping. That'll be it."
Preserve manager Dennis Trujillo said this has been the Valles Caldera's most successful winter so far. Two days per week, the preserve offers snowshoeing opportunities and cross-country skiing, as well as sleigh rides.
About 150 people attended the most recent cross-country skiing and snowshoeing event, Trujillo said.
Over the summer, the Caldera is open seven days a week, Trujillo said. The Caldera brings in giant telescopes some nights for stargazing, and hiking and biking opportunities are available within certain boundaries.
There are days the roads there are entirely open for bikers to ride wherever they please — "Fun rides," he said. "We close the whole preserve and you can ride for miles and miles."
Special opportunities like that, Bratcher said, would be lost if the U.S. Forest or National Park Service took over. He pictures a company like Nike or Adidas sponsoring marathon running events in the Caldera.
"No other agency can control access enough to have the functions we do," Bratcher said. "We're light on our feet and flexible, so we're able to do these things."
VCNP's director of science and education, Bob Parmenter, said opportunities would be lost in his field if the federal government took control. He said in 2009 the number of science projects there increased from 32 to 39, paid by outside funding. Volunteers from Sierra Club or from universities are constantly pulling samples from the Valles Caldera's soil and water, he said.
Parmenter also said grazing in the Caldera is carefully managed. New Mexico State University grazes livestock there and is studying diseases in the animals that occur at high altitudes.
Parmenter said if the Valles Caldera Preservation Act could be modified, revenues generated at the preserve could cover about 20 percent to 50 percent of the overall budget. The U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service both raise only a small percentage of their budgets, less than 10 percent in each case.
"It (modifying the law) allocates part of the cost to users, rather than almost all to taxpayers," he said.
Those users would include the students who attend educational opportunities soon to be provided by the new educational center. Parmenter said the base rate for students is about $35 per night each.
"If we can fill the place to 45 or 50 percent capacity, the whole operation pays for itself," he said.
Once a retirement home for aged priests, the center's $640,000 renovation, paid for entirely with recreation fees, wasn't quite complete on Monday. The sheets haven't arrived for the 50 beds in 25 dormitory-style bedrooms. The TVs aren't set up and cooking equipment is bunched together in the cafeteria while the kitchen gets assembled.
But Parmenter said it will be finished by the time the Lake Forest students arrive. Several more field trips are booked after that.
What happens to the center if Valles Caldera management is taken over by NPS?
"This is not the Caldera, it's part of the trust," Parmenter said. "If the trust goes away ... That's a good question."
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