The Valles Caldera is experiencing exceptional drought this winter. According to NOAA, most of northern New Mexico is “abnormally dry”. We have about a third of our normal moisture for this time of year. Nobody is enjoying winter sports in the Valles Caldera National Preserve this year.
If you want to see what the Valle Grande looks like right now, go to the Park Service webcam that points to the east from the Cabin District. Click here to view the webcam.
Rebuilding the North Fence
An organization called Rio Grande Return has been rebuilding the fence around the Valles Caldera NP, and they have been doing wetland restoration work in the Valle San Antonio to mitigate damage from livestock. Here is a snip from their recent newsletter about the Caldera Fence:
“The over 50 mile long boundary fence line surrounding the Valles Caldera National Preserve had not been maintained since the early 2000s when it was still the Baca Ranch. We are working with the Forest Service on clearing deadfall, repairing and rebuilding the boundary fence to reduce instances of trespass cattle into VCNP.
A handful of organizations had built small sections of fence over the years, but in 2024, Rio Grande Return started to fully address the entire perimeter. Last season, we completely rebuilt nine miles of fence line including much of the north boundary of the Caldera and sections of the southern and western boundaries.
Led by a crew from the Torreon Chapter House of the Navajo Nation, the work is proving to be extremely difficult because of the rugged terrain and remote access points. In order to access the remote locations, the RGR team has been using mules to help carry equipment and fencing.”
And here is something about their work in the Valle San Antonio:
“Rio Grande Return has constructed 60 beaver dam analogs and placed 120 large woody debris structures along 2.5 miles of San Antonio Creek over the past four years. This work builds on a prior 2012 project that included planting 7,500 willows and 650 cottonwoods/aspens, and construction of five exclosures to protect the plants from elk or cattle.
Trump Watch
The chaos of executive orders that Donald Trump issued in his first hours in the White House included a hiring freeze for all federal agencies. This freeze will affect seasonal ranger and firefighter positions in the US Forest Service, BLM, and National Park Service. It will also prevent the Park Service from hiring new law enforcement rangers needed at our New Mexico parks.
Substantial numbers of firefighters are seasonal, and this hiring freeze will lead to a shortage of wildland firefighters this year. Already federal agencies have been having trouble attracting young people into the wildland fire profession given low pay, housing problems, and job insecurity.
In northern New Mexico, the US Forest Service is the main source of firefighters and firefighting equipment for fires on all federal jurisdictions. The National Park Service has a wildland fire station at Bandelier with equipment and staff that serves the Valles Caldera and Pecos National Historic Park. Some of the staff there is permanent, but they depend on seasonals as well. All these parks also need seasonal workers to staff visitor centers and maintain park facilities.
In 2017, during his first term, Trump exempted land management seasonal employees from a hiring freeze. So far that hasn’t happened this time. Many seasonals who already had job offers on the table have had those offers rescinded. The window of opportunity for hiring people for the summer is fast closing as most seasonals make decisions in winter. With the California wildfires as a recent disaster, and drought spreading across the West, it would seem prudent to have ample firefighting resources ready for the coming fire season.
Trump and Musk have not turned their sights on the Department of the Interior yet. It may be just a matter of time.
What you can do: Write to your congress person and your US senators anytime you are disturbed by things you see going on in Washington. Even if you think they agree with you, it is important that they hear from us, constantly.
