ABQ Journal Online Edition
Saturday, February 9, 2008

A Cattle-Free Valles Caldera?

By Raam Wong
Journal Staff Writer
A local environmental group is pitching a novel idea for Valles Caldera National Preserve's 2008 cattle operation- get rid of the cattle.
Last month, preserve managers solicited proposals from livestock operators to graze cattle on Valles Caldera grasslands once again this summer.
Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, the successor to Forest Guardians, answered the call.
The group has submitted a $35,000 bid "for the privilege not to graze the preserve" and instead focus on maximizing fish populations and protecting wildlife.
Executive director John Horning says the preserve's board of trustees has become too "cow-centric" with a grazing program that damages the environment.
The group is arguing that its plan would be the most ecologically friendly of options and the most financially prudent.
But WildEarth could face an uphill battle. When Congress purchased the 89,000-acre preserve from ranching interests in 2000, it mandated that it should continue operating as a working ranch.
Dennis Trujillo, the Valles Caldera preserve manager, said it's too early to say if WildEarth's idea is "a valid proposal." He said he and a committee of preserve officials next week will go over the five grazing applications, including WildEarth's, that have been submitted.
"The intent was to have a livestock program of some sort," Trujillo said. Preserve officials will have to research the legality of being compensated for not ranching the Valles Caldera "and does that fall within the definition of a working ranch."
Can a ranch still be a ranch without livestock? Absolutely, Horning said in a Journal interview Thursday. He said a ranch could be focused around wildlife and the scenic value of the Jemez Mountain preserve.
"The notion of a working ranch is evolving," Horning said.
The group also notes that the trust's request for proposals does not specify a minimum number of cattle that would need to be on the preserve.
More to the point, WildEarth staff attorney Melissa Hailey said the 2000 Valles Caldera Preservation Act also required that a ranch be "consistent" with other purposes, such as protecting the preserve's unique environment and wildlife.

And grazing, Hailey argues, is inconsistent with those goals. Hailey said cattle gather in and around streams, damaging banks and pushing sediment into stream beds. As a result, the preserve's prized trout waters could become wider, shallower and warmer, to the detriment of the fish.
The group also says cattle damage natives species and compete for space with wildlife, such as the preserve's elk populations.
The request for proposals does stipulate that a livestock operation be environmentally friendly. And each spring, preserve experts evaluate factors like forage and water data to determine the range's carrying capacity for the season.
The livestock program operates in and around a series of valles, or high-elevation pastures totaling about 27,000 acres.
Horning said the group's $35,000 bid would also help the preserve achieve financial self-sustainability by 2015, another mandate by Congress.
Past grazing programs have been money-losers. In 2005, for example, grazing programs cost the preserve about $80,000.
Last year was the first time the preserve turned a small profit- $5,800- from its grazing program run by Chaves County ranchers Jack and Pat Hagelstein. Preserve officials have said the Hagelsteins were chosen because they provided a comprehensive plan that would use ecologically friendly management practices.
About 530 yearlings were brought onto the preserve- short of the 2,000 that the range could have handled because of the ideal conditions. And some small local producers were disappointed at not having an opportunity to graze their cattle on the preserve.
Because WildEarth's proposal would require nothing more from the preserve than keeping livestock off the range, the group says its entire payment would be profit for the trust. Other summertime recreational activities on the preserve would not be affected.
The group notes that other ventures have proven far more profitable for the trust. Elk hunts, for example, generated $300,000 last year.
Before it became WildEarth, Forest Guardians pioneered the strategy of leasing state trust lands for the purpose of conservation. In 1996, the group leased what would become 2,000 acres of state land on Rio Puerco south of Cuba and today cottonwoods and willows are flourishing where cows once grazed.
The group says it would like to do similar restoration on the Valles Caldera with the approval of the trust.