Sens. Bingaman and Udall introduced legislation yesterday to transfer management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Parks Service.
Trout Unlimited, along with other sportsman’s groups and many others, asked that management of the Valles Caldera be transfered to a federal land management agency in order to lower costs and increase public access opportunities.
The Caldera has been run by an appointed board. Many New Mexicans were frustrated by the Board’s attempts to make money from public access, including high-dollar elk tags and fee-based fishing.
Bingaman and Udall’s bill ensures that public hunting and fishing will continue at the Valles Caldera and also will mean stable and secure funding for the area.
Bingaman, who along with former Sen. Pete Domenici help secure the purchase of the privately-help Valles Caldera for the public in 2000, said programs important to New Mexicans will continue in the future.
“Under our proposed legislation, management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve will be transferred to the National Park Service to be administered as a unit of the National Park System. The bill directs the Park Service to manage the Preserve to protect and preserve its natural and cultural resources, including its nationally significant geologic resources,” noted Bingaman in a prepared statement Thursday. “Hunting and fishing would continue to be allowed, and grazing would also continue to be permitted. The National Park Service would also be directed to establish a science and education program utilizing the best practices created by the Trust.”

You can read the bill here.

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