Martin Heinrich: “You mention Yellowstone. We have a place in northern New Mexico that many people refer to as New Mexico's Yellowstone…”

“You mention Yellowstone. We have a place in northern New Mexico that many people refer to as New Mexico's Yellowstone, because, like Yellowstone, it is a high elevation caldera. It is a place where there was a supervolcano, and that supervolcano collapsed in on itself. When it did, it created what they call a reverse treeline, a series of very high elevation meadows connected to each other with a ring of mountains around them. Near the caldera there is a huge elk herd, hot springs, and wild trout. That place is called the Valles Caldera National Preserve today. It was actually first proposed as a national park, I think, in about 1916, if you can believe that. Almost to the month, 100 years later, we were able to make this a national preserve, which is like a National Park Service property that also allows for hunting and fishing. We did that because the family who had been a great steward of that land for decades had decided that they needed to sell it, but they wanted to see it preserved. What came to the rescue in that case was the Land and Water Conservation Fund, in one of the largest acquisitions of private land from a willing private seller--an enthusiastic private seller to the public trust. Today this is an 89,000-acre national preserve that anyone in the United States can visit. Once again, anyone with a hunting license can apply for an elk tag there, can go fishing there. It is just a remarkable, remarkable place.…”