Caldera Action continues to advocate for public access to our National Preserve. As public land, the Preserve is open to the public with some minor limitations. We can only drive on designated roads, but we can walk, ski, ride horses, or bicycle in many places year-round. We can fish and hunt in season. All Americans, including Native Americans, own the Valles Caldera together.
We were disappointed to see that the Park Service closed the main road beyond the Horse Barn to motor vehicle traffic in late November, even though the roads were dry and snowless. This date had been a closure tradition under the Trust which was dissolved in 2014. We urge the NPS to allow public access within rules that also continue to protect most of the Preserve from motorized entry.
We urge everyone to explore the Preserve widely year-round. With the current dry winter, skiing and snow shoeing may not happen for some time but we can hike, ride horses and bicycles into the backcountry. From the Los Alamos side, people can enter the Preserve from Camp May and from Canada Bonito and from the western edge of Bandelier National Monument. On the west, there are good entry points near La Cueva.
If you have questions about access and closures, or if you have other questions, you may contact the Park Superintendent and public information officer:
Winter Work to Stop Ecological Destruction
When ranchers drove into the Valles Caldera in September and trucked more than 100 trespass cattle out past the watching eyes of the National Park Service. We wondered why they hadn’t done that last June? Why had the Park Service allowed them to graze illegally all summer? Why had the US Forest Service not done their part in stopping their permittee’s cattle from trespassing on the Preserve?
The illegal grazing in the Caldera is wreaking havoc on the streams and vegetation in the upper high-altitude watershed. For the last few summers, cattle have been congregating in the Rio San Antonio and in the Valle Toledo. Cows trample beautiful clear springs to muddy bogs. They trample and widen creeks, filling them with mud and feces.
And while we may be used to seeing this sort of destruction on many public lands lands throughout the West, the Valles Caldera was explicitly legislated to be a refuge for endangered species like the meadow jumping mouse and other rare species, a place where nature can recover from past damage. And the Preserve is meant to increase “ecosystem services” by protecting watersheds for downstream communities like Jemez Springs, Jemez, Zia, and Santa Ana Pueblos.
Both the US Forest Service and the National Park Service are failing the public in terms of controlling trespass cattle in the VCNP. In contracts that ranchers sign for the privilege of grazing cattle on US Forest Service lands adjacent to the Preserve, they agree not to allow their cattle to trespass anywhere outside their fenced allotments. Their contracts with the USFS says they will be billed if they do allow their cattle to graze outside the designated allotment.
Caldera Action has engaged a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) discovery process to find out what if any fines have been exacted on the ranchers whose cattle have trespassed on the VCNP for years.
The USFS is also mandated to monitor the condition of the grasses and other forage on Santa Fe National Forest land that is leased to the ranchers. Legally, grazing can only remove 40% of the forage on the grazing allotments. It appears that far more than 40% of the grass is grazed from USFS lands north of the Preserve. Grass shortages on USFS lands may lead cattle to seek forage on the VCNP.
We are using the Freedom of Information Act to discover what range monitoring has been happening on the Coyote District of the Santa Fe National Forest. Is the USFS complying with its own rules and regulations in terms of cattle ranching on our national forest? We hope to find out soon.
Collaborating with New Mexico Wildlife Federation
We had an extended conference call with staff members of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation regarding the trespass cattle. The NMWF is concerned about the trespass grazing because, as a hunting and fishing advocacy group, they know the cattle are degrading fish and elk habitat. The Valles Caldera is a critical place for wildlife.
The NMWF was a key ally in getting the VCNP purchased from its private owner in 2000 and they were indispensable in our joint effort to have the VCNP transferred to the National Park Service in 2014. They are engaging the Forest Service with us to shine the spotlight on the management problems leading to rogue grazing.
We will continue our collaboration with the NMWF and other groups until the illegal grazing on the VCNP ceases.
