Shifting Public Land Paradigms: Lessons from the Valles Caldera National Preserve

Abstract

The Valles Caldera National Preserve is the largest and most ambitious public land management experiment in the United States’ history. Congress created the Preserve in 2000 as a wholly owned Government Corporation managed not by a federal agency, but instead by a Board of Trustees. The management paradigm was unique. In addition to the familiar requirements of multiple use and sustained yield, the Act included a mandate that the Preserve become financially self-sustaining. This experiment ended in December of 2014 when Congress passed a law transferring management to the National Park Service. The creation of this experiment, along with its subsequent unfolding over 14 years, provides a fascinating window into the challenges associated with public land management generally and a financially driven trust model specifically. This Article examines the Preserve’s experiment and attempts to answer the question — what did we learn? Lessons include: (1) the challenges of having a corporate identity while also complying with laws pertaining to federal agencies, (2) the ways in which NEPA can inform management via iterative processes, (3) successes in science-based of adaptive management, (4) the challenges of running a “working ranch” in the American West, and (5) opportunities to protect cultural resources and honor the religious and cultural practices of living native communities. Absent among these lessons is a clear answer regarding whether public lands can be made financially self-sustaining. The Preserve’s neoliberal charge was thwarted for many reasons, including our cultural beliefs about public lands and the role they play within the American imaginary.