Good Progress Removing Trespass Cattle from Preserve this Summer
Snow in the Valle San Antonio indicates the end of the subsidized cattle grazing program on nearby national forest lands for another year. Cattle leaked across the boundary fence between the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera National Preserve again this summer. But because of the notice of intent to sue the US Forest Service by Caldera Action, Wildearth Guardians and Western Watershed Project, we saw a steep drop in cattle trespass. Also the National Park Service took solid action to quickly remove the bovines from our Preserve when people reported cattle in the Preserve.
In 2023, people reported groups of trespass cattle 17 times for about 900 cows. This summer, we had 14 reports that added up to 362 cows. Still too many. The National Park Service hired a cowboy to round up the cattle and pen them up for ranchers to retrieve. This system worked well but we still need to keep the cows out entirely with a well-maintained fence and further incentives to the ranchers to keep them on legal pastures.
Landmark Forest Service and Park Service Agreement to Maintain North Fence
Regular readers will know that the fence between the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera National Preserve on the north side of the Valles Caldera has been a major point of contention for years. The fence is meant to keep cattle in their grazing allotments on the national forest and protect the VCNP from trespass grazing. The fence also keeps motorcycles out of the VCNP.
Since the VCNP was created in 2000, cattle have been trespassing on the Preserve across the north boundary. The north fence was in terrible repair when the VCNP was created, and it has been rebuilt and repaired over the years. Trees fall on the fence and elk crush it in places. People cut the fence so cattle can enter the Preserve from the largely overgrazed national forest land to the north.
Caldera Action and our allies have been battling cattle trespass for years and we filed a Notice of Intent to sue the US Forest Service early in 2024. Our legal action caused the two agencies to start to deal with the trespass cattle issue seriously and part of that effort has been the new agreement to cooperate on fence maintenance.
With two different agencies on either side of the fence, the players had to decide who oversees the fence. We thought that the US Forest Service should build and maintain the fence and the ranchers who run cattle on the national forest should be required to maintain the fence as they must do with other fences. The Forest Service thought the Park Service should maintain the fence since they wanted the cattle out of their land.
In any case, the agencies agreed that they will both take care of the fence as funding allows. The National Park Service has already spent a great deal of money on new fencing and the labor to install it.
Caldera Action and our allies feel the fence should be built of steel pipe in the places where it gets cut and that cameras should monitor those places. We hope that our court action compels the Forest Service to bring the law to bear on the people who cut the fence since we suspect both agencies know who those people are.
We’ll have more news on the cattle trespass problem soon and we are grateful for everyone who reports trespass cattle so the NPS can round then up for removal.