Washington – Fences make good neighbors, the old saying goes. The Valles Caldera, it seems, needs a new one to keep some messy neighbors out and U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) is tired of waiting on federal agencies to get to it .
More than 100 cattle from neighboring forest service grazing allotments are routinely found in the wetland and open grazing areas of the preserve where they are prohibited. Cattle activities destroy pristine riparian areas and natural ecosystems when they claim an area for grazing.
“We worked for years with others to get the Valles Caldera into the National Park System because the Park Service has the highest standards of land protection of any federal agency,” said Tom Ribe, Executive Director of Caldera Action, a nonprofit focused on the Jemez Mountains, told WildEarth Guardians in 2022. “We trusted they would protect the Caldera from all sorts of possible damage. They closed the majority of the Preserve to cattle grazing but then looked the other way while cows flooded in across vandalized and damaged fences.
Heinrich worked to include federal funding to be used for fencing and cattle barriers at the preserve through the Great American Outdoors Act.
Despite funding and an agreement between federal agencies on how to manage the work, nothing has been done. This week Heinrich questioned US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore on the delay. Moore promised that an agreement between his agency and the Park Service was in progress and work would begin soon, but he offered no timeline or details.
From the hearing:
Heinrich asked, “When we last talked, the Forest Service was finalizing a contract to repair the Santa Fe National Forest fence that keeps cattle from trespassing onto the neighboring property, which is the Valles Caldera National Preserve. What is the status of that contract at this point?”
Chief Moore responded, “So we’ve agreed to put up a million dollars toward the construction of the fence, and we’ve also agreed to go halves on the maintenance of the fence once it’s done.”
Heinrich followed up, “Is that contract, not the maintenance contract but the repair contract, has that been executed?”
Chief Moore replied, “We have a meeting with the Park Service. We have an agreement in place, but we have not signed off that agreement. But the agreement would be halves on both the actual construction of the fence and the maintenance of the fence.”
Heinrich responded, “This has been a long time coming. So I would just urge you and Park Service Director Chuck Sams to figure this thing out because it’s a continual source of friction in the area.”