Ten years after it was transferred from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service, Valles Caldera National Preserve remains a fledgling unit of the National Park System, one that is continuing to grow and evolve.
The National Park Service has been sued over Director Chuck Sams' decision to allow the Jemez Pueblo to kill an eagle in Valles Caldera National Preserve by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is asking to see the decision documents Sams relied on to authorize the taking.
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams violated his agency's "protective mandate" for wildlife when he allowed the Jemez Pueblo to kill a bald or golden eagle inside Valles Caldera National Preserve last fall, according to a number of retired Park Service managers and wildlife biologists.
In a move viewed as unprecedented and apparently against agency regulations, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams signed off on a request to allow the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico to kill either a bald or golden eagle in Valles Caldera Preserve.