Today I drove up into the Jemez Mountains to the Valles Caldera Trust (VCT) Headquarters, across from the Jemez State Monument. The Valles Caldera Trust rents office space, near Jemez Springs, from the Servants of the Paraclete. I attended a first ever Volunteer Training workshop for the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP).
The drive up was beautiful - going through astounding country. Up until past Battleship Rock, you're actually driving within the Valles Caldera on NM4. This website, VallesCaldera.com, illustrates well that a great deal of the Valles Caldera can be enjoyed without ever setting foot on the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) and can actually be accessed from within the Santa Fe National Forest.
As I turned into the parking lot at VCT Headquarters, I could see colorfully picturesque Cat Mesa, down San Diego Canyon, towering over the Jemez Valley. It's a different world in Jemez Springs - tall mesas with indescribably colorful rocks and the willow and cottonwood lined Jemez River making a mockery of the phrase "the arid Southwest".
The Valles Caldera National Preserve, as of last July, hired a new Supervisory Recreation Specialist, Kimberly DeVall. Kimberly said that she is number five in as many years to hold this position. Before coming to the Preserve, she worked the last four and a half years on the other side of the fence, for the Santa Fe National Forest. She seems earnest and enthused and really wants to do right by the volunteers. A majority of attendees expressed a feeling that volunteers hadn't been appreciated in the past and were even ignored. I can attest that before Kimberly came on board, my inquiries about volunteer positions went unanswered. I've heard the same tale from others. I honestly think that Kimberly will change all that. For more information on Kimberly, read the Fall 2008 La Ventana en los Valles, Welcome to New Staff article, (page 2), which can be downloaded here as a pdf file.
Kimberly said that they had had snow the past two weekends and how lovely the weather was today. It truly was a sparkling day in the Jemez Mountains. No one else from Preserve Administration or Management or the VCT attended the meeting. Meeting facilitators included Kimberly's recreation assistants, Emily Blumenthal and Joyce McHugh and interpretative assistant, Stacy Urich. Rob Dixon, Preserve Outdoor Research Planner, had planned to attend but took ill.
People came from Santa Fe, Pojoaque, Española, Los Alamos, Vallecitos de los Indios, the Jemez Valley, Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.
The meeting started out pretty lively and Kimberly was really a good sport and very patient with us. One man asked why the locked gate into the Valle Grande Staging Area and why not allow year around admission. A woman who volunteers with the equestrian program at Banco Bonito made a compelling case for equestrian volunteers having been unappreciated in the past. Overall, the audience and Kimberly agreed that in the past, many volunteers have been lost because of deplorable lack of communication. Kimberly suggested ways to remedy that such as setting up a page on the official VCNP website to communicate with volunteers. She's even considering Twitter!
Volunteers will need to attend one of these orientation sessions each year. Those who attended this year can take a refresher course next year that will focus on some continuing education aspect of volunteerism at the Preserve.
To get on the email list to be notified of upcoming volunteer workshops, please contact Kimberly. To contact Kimberly DeVall to let her know of your interest in volunteering for the VCNP, please use this Employee Directory which gives her email address. Kimberly feels that volunteers are important and says she plans to treat us that way.
Also, the VCNP website has a helpful new feature this year whereby you can sign up for a mailing list, specifying your interests. To do this, go to the VCNP home page and click on Mailing Lists in the upper left hand corner.
The drive up was beautiful - going through astounding country. Up until past Battleship Rock, you're actually driving within the Valles Caldera on NM4. This website, VallesCaldera.com, illustrates well that a great deal of the Valles Caldera can be enjoyed without ever setting foot on the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) and can actually be accessed from within the Santa Fe National Forest.
As I turned into the parking lot at VCT Headquarters, I could see colorfully picturesque Cat Mesa, down San Diego Canyon, towering over the Jemez Valley. It's a different world in Jemez Springs - tall mesas with indescribably colorful rocks and the willow and cottonwood lined Jemez River making a mockery of the phrase "the arid Southwest".
The Valles Caldera National Preserve, as of last July, hired a new Supervisory Recreation Specialist, Kimberly DeVall. Kimberly said that she is number five in as many years to hold this position. Before coming to the Preserve, she worked the last four and a half years on the other side of the fence, for the Santa Fe National Forest. She seems earnest and enthused and really wants to do right by the volunteers. A majority of attendees expressed a feeling that volunteers hadn't been appreciated in the past and were even ignored. I can attest that before Kimberly came on board, my inquiries about volunteer positions went unanswered. I've heard the same tale from others. I honestly think that Kimberly will change all that. For more information on Kimberly, read the Fall 2008 La Ventana en los Valles, Welcome to New Staff article, (page 2), which can be downloaded here as a pdf file.
Kimberly said that they had had snow the past two weekends and how lovely the weather was today. It truly was a sparkling day in the Jemez Mountains. No one else from Preserve Administration or Management or the VCT attended the meeting. Meeting facilitators included Kimberly's recreation assistants, Emily Blumenthal and Joyce McHugh and interpretative assistant, Stacy Urich. Rob Dixon, Preserve Outdoor Research Planner, had planned to attend but took ill.
People came from Santa Fe, Pojoaque, Española, Los Alamos, Vallecitos de los Indios, the Jemez Valley, Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.
The meeting started out pretty lively and Kimberly was really a good sport and very patient with us. One man asked why the locked gate into the Valle Grande Staging Area and why not allow year around admission. A woman who volunteers with the equestrian program at Banco Bonito made a compelling case for equestrian volunteers having been unappreciated in the past. Overall, the audience and Kimberly agreed that in the past, many volunteers have been lost because of deplorable lack of communication. Kimberly suggested ways to remedy that such as setting up a page on the official VCNP website to communicate with volunteers. She's even considering Twitter!
Volunteers will need to attend one of these orientation sessions each year. Those who attended this year can take a refresher course next year that will focus on some continuing education aspect of volunteerism at the Preserve.
To get on the email list to be notified of upcoming volunteer workshops, please contact Kimberly. To contact Kimberly DeVall to let her know of your interest in volunteering for the VCNP, please use this Employee Directory which gives her email address. Kimberly feels that volunteers are important and says she plans to treat us that way.
Also, the VCNP website has a helpful new feature this year whereby you can sign up for a mailing list, specifying your interests. To do this, go to the VCNP home page and click on Mailing Lists in the upper left hand corner.