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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Letters
Free Access Would Ruin the Caldera
Scores of New Mexicans breathed a sigh of relief when legislation was signed to transform the Baca Location into the Valles Caldera National Preserve. However, the fly in the ointment has always been the directive of fiscal self-sufficiency, coupled with uninterrupted domestic cattle grazing.
The new board has consistently overpriced access, whether for elk hunts, or day hikes and everything in between. The result has largely been limited public access.
However, we should not rush into a simple open park solution for the Caldera! This is the policy of the neighboring Forest Service. It only takes a moment to see clearly what this would mean for the Caldera: widespread abuse. Forest Service land is scarred by hundreds of miles of off-road vehicle routes, about which the Forest Service is in deep denial. Mule deer and elk populations have crashed. Cutthroat trout are restricted to tiny stretches of water. Campers routinely heap tons of trash at scores of primitive car camp sites. Visitors drink, drive and heave empties in all directions. Traversing the ancient Bland-Frijoles trail will yield little beyond mounds of cow dung and a spiderweb of ATV tracks.
Forest Service style “management” with an open door policy will inevitably bring all these types to invade and attack the Caldera. The Valles Caldera deserves better.
What really needs to change is the mandate for fiscal self-sufficiency, and the directive to continue to ranch against all odds. The Dunnigans (the previous owners) routinely sold expensive elk hunts, grazed other peoples' herds, and ran their own operation, yet were less than happy with the financial return. How is creating a similar model going to make any difference?
All parties need to understand that fiscal self-sufficiency is pie-in-the-sky dreaming. Similarly, the growing of beef will not support the preserve. It will merely diminish ever further the precious resources we all need to see protected.
New Mexicans need to be cautious in their call to possess and invade the Caldera. Let us move now to bring in a management style that preserves and protects the wild character of the Caldera while controlling the abuses. First and foremost we need to redefine the directive of the Caldera, and we need to do it soon.
Michael Kadisak
Cochiti
Put Valles Caldera Under Park Service
Because I live in Los Alamos, in close proximity to the Valles Caldera National Preserve, I, as many others have, looked forward to unlimited Preserve access. After nine years, this still isn't possible. Yes, there is a variety of organized activities as Steve Henry, chairman of the Board of Trustees points out in his letter of July 26, but why are we still not able to gain entrance for a fee and then hike on our own?
I strongly support the efforts to make this land a Preserve under the National Park Service jurisdiction. It would then give access to all and support a variety of activities such as hiking, hunting, fishing, as well as continuation of its excellent scientific research program. Self-sustainability would no longer be an issue.
Ilse Bleck
Los Alamos
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