New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/58 An overview of the Valles Caldera National Preserve: The natural and cultural resources Robert R. Parmentier, Anastasia Steffen, and Craig D. Allen, 2007, pp. 147-154 in: Geology of the Jemez Region II, Kues, Barry S., Kelley, Shari A., Lueth, Virgil W.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 58th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 499 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 2007 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. 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ALLEN2 1 Valles Caldera Trust, Jemez Springs, New Mexico 87025 2 United States Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Jemez Mountains Field Station, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544 ABSTRACT — The Valles Caldera National Preserve is one of New Mexico’s natural wonders and a popular area for public recreation, sustainable natural resource production, and scientific research and education. Here, we provide a concise overview of the natural and cultural history of the Preserve, including descriptions of the ecosystems, flora and fauna. We note that, at the landscape scale, the Valles caldera appears to be spectacularly pristine; however, humans have extracted resources from the Preserve area for many centuries, resulting in localized impacts to forests, grasslands and watersheds. The Valles Caldera Trust is now charged with managing the Preserve and providing public access, while preserving and restoring these valuable public resources. INTRODUCTION valles. Elevation ranges from 2,440 m (7,930 ft) at the outflow of the Jemez River’s East Fork, to 3,430 m (11,254 ft) on Redondo The Valles Caldera Preservation Act (Public Law 106-248), Peak, the highest dome in the caldera. The VCNP forms a single passed by Congress in 2000, provided for the acquisition of the watershed unit draining out a breach in the caldera wall to the Baca Ranch located in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico (Fig. Jemez River’s San Diego Canyon, southwest of the VCNP. 1). The Act designated the acquired lands to be the Valles Cal- The Jemez Mountains flora and ecology is typical of the south- dera National Preserve and created the Valles Caldera Trust to ern Rocky Mountains. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) is the manage the 88,900 acre tract. The Preserve was established to major tree species below 2,740 m (9,000 ft) that rings the valles, protect and preserve the scientific, scenic, geologic, watershed, except on some north-facing slopes where blue spruce (Picea fish, wildlife, historic, heritage, and recreational values of the pungens) has recently gained importance (Hogan and Allen, Preserve, and to provide for multiple use and sustained yield of 1999; Muldavin and Tonne, 2003; Muldavin et al., 2006). Pon- renewable resources within the Preserve. Congress also man- derosa forests grade into mixed-conifer forests with higher eleva- dated that the Trust become financially self-sustaining within 15 tion. These stands occur below ~3,050 m (10,000 ft) and contain years, indicating that public use fees and renewable resource rev- combinations of ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga men- enues would eventually provide sufficient income to operate the ziesii), white fir (Abies concolor), quaking aspen (Populus tremu- Preserve without Federal appropriations. loides), and limber pine (Pinus flexilis). Spruce-fir forests domi- During the past several years, the Trust has been establishing nated by Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and corkbark fir recreation programs, operating interim programs for livestock (A. lasiocarpa var. arizonica) are found ar the highest elevations grazing, and undertaking the daunting task of inventorying and above 2,740 m (9,000 ft). Aspen (P. tremuloides) stands occur monitoring the natural and cultural resources on the Preserve. throughout the forested landscape. Soil characteristics, cold air Current public access programs include recreational hiking, drainage, hydrology, fire, and grazing contribute to the mainte- horseback riding, cross-country skiing, fishing, elk and turkey nance of the grasslands that span the valles in the enclosed caldera hunting, and a wide variety of special events, such as night-sky (Allen, 1989; Coop and Givnish, 2007a, b). On the VCNP, 20 programs, weekend photography workshops, geology and nature habitat mapping units, including specific vegetation associations tours, horse-drawn wagon and sleigh rides, and public school and their characteristic flora (Fig. 3), have been identified and educational activities. Scientific inventories for flora, fauna, described by Muldavin et al. (2006). In addition, soils mapping soils, geology, and watershed condition, together with cultural by scientists with the U.S. Forest Service and National Resource resource surveys, are still under way to provide resource data Conservation Service have yielded 20 soil series within 19 soil for science-based adaptive management planning. In addition, mapping units on the Preserve. numerous scientists from a wide variety of agencies and universi- The VCNP supports a great diversity of animals, plants and ties are using the Preserve as an outdoor laboratory for research fungi. Species inventoried during 2001-2007 include 48 species and education. of mammals, 113 breeding birds, 6 reptiles, 3 amphibians, 6 fish, 525 plants, 28 lichens, 11 algae and 5 slime molds. Ongoing NATURAL RESOURCES inventories of insects have resulted in hundreds of species identi- fied, including 131 species of aquatic insects from VCNP streams The Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) lies at the center and wetlands. of the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico (Fig. 2). The Wildfire, herbivory, and logging have been the principal dis- VCNP is a collapsed magma chamber approximately 25 km (15.5 turbances influencing vegetation pattern and process in the VCNP mi) in diameter, and incorporates multiple resurgent lava domes (Balmat and Kupfer 2004). Fire has been a principal force shap- that rose following the chamber’s collapse ca. 1.25 million years ing local vegetation patterns. Most Jemez Mountains ecosystems ago. The VCNP is characterized by forested domes and grassland experienced a history of frequent, widespread, lightning-ignited 148 PARMENTER, STEFFEN, & ALLEN FIGURE 1. The Valles Caldera National Preserve [Photos by Don Usner (DU), Esteban Muldavin (EM), Robert Parmenter (RP) and Kimber Barber (KB)]. Clockwise from upper left: view of San Antonio Creek in Valle San Antonio (DU); north rim of the Valles Caldera (EM); aerial view of Valle Toledo following a prescribed fire in November, 2005 (RP); livestock grazing in the Valle Grande (DU); bull elk bugling (KB); “bachelor herd” of bull elk (DU). See Plate 1 on page 131 for color version of this figure. AN OVERVIEW OF THE VALLES CALDERA NATIONAL PRESERVE 149 “dog hair” thickets of small trees, creating areas of high risk for catastrophic fire. One of the Trust’s major management priorities is to thin these forests to reduce fire hazard, and return the forests to a more natural, sustainable condition (Fig. 7). CULTURAL RESOURCES The rich animal, botanical, and mineral resources of the Valles caldera have provided materials and food for human use through- out prehistory. The earliest occupation of the Southwest began during the Paleoindian period, dated from more than 10,000 years ago to about