Superintendent of Valles Caldera looks to make preserve more accessible
JEMEZ SPRINGS (KRQE) – National Park Service (NPS) officials are trying to put one local New Mexico preserve on the map by making it more accessible for visitors and by creating a better experience. KRQE News 13 spoke with the superintendent of Valles Caldera National Preserve to find out more about their plan.
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“Growing up I never knew this place existed, and I know people my age and older a lot of them don’t know about Valles Caldera either,” said Jorge Silva-Bañuelos, superintendent of the national preserve.
“I grew up in Albuquerque my entire life and when I was growing up, Valles Caldera was a private ranch; and it never showed up on a map other than a big white square,” Silva-Bañuelos said.
However, the superintendent of the 14-mile-wide caldera wants to change that for New Mexicans and tourists coming into the area.
“Valles Caldera is a landscape that is unlike anything else in the state of New Mexico. It’s a 14-mile-wide volcanic depression or caldera that was formed over a million years ago. And within that time, there was a resurgent dome that formed in the center with multiple volcanic domes that circle it with all of these interspersed grassland valleys,” Silva-Bañuelos said,”It has a number of wildlife: you can see elk, coyotes, prairie dogs, sometimes bears, mountain lions…It’s a really great location to experience all the natural and cultural wonders that New Mexico has.
“We here at Valles Caldera, we’re trying to become a national model for sustainability, ecological restoration, tribal partnerships, that is an engaging and welcoming landscape for all,” Silva-Bañuelos said.
He says part of that is making sure visitors both have recreational opportunities and access to them there. “We’ve expanded hiking trails, mountain biking trials, as well as areas for horseback riding, and we continue to improve and increase our ranger-led public programming,” Silva-Bañuelos said.
And it doesn’t end there: “Valles Caldera is in its second year of working to develop a, what’s called a general management plan,” Silva-Bañuelos said.
Included in the expanded plan are paving roads in the park, adding utilities like running water, and building a new visitor’s center.
The superintendent of the national preserve says their plans for upgrades here extend well into the future.”This is our 20 to 30-year document that gives us that vision for the next 20 to 30 years, and part of that is we’re looking at ‘what are those infrastructure needs that may create some barriers for public access and recreational opportunities?'” Silva-Bañuelos said.
It’s something the state’s tourism department says could help drive the regional economy, as well. “For a place like Valles Caldera, making it more amenable to visitors certainly creates more economic appeal for places like Jemez Springs, as well as Los Alamos which are kind of on both ends of that access point,” said Cody Johnson, communications director for the New Mexico Tourism Department.
The superintendent says the process is ongoing. They plan to have another public comment period on the proposed changes later this year. For more information about the preserve and upcoming activities, click here.
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