From Truchas TU: Valles Caldera book-signing event 10/22/06

[tubase at cybermesa.com]

The Truchas Chapter has been a member of the Valles Caldera Coalition
since the Coalition was founded to work for the purchase of the Valles
Caldera National Preserve by the federal government.  The Coalition
continues as the public's eyes, ears and voice on the management and
state of the Preserve.  The Coalition is sponsoring a fund raising event
on Sunday, October 22, 2006, at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in
Santa Fe.  The event is described in the Coalition's announcement set
out below.  We hope all of you can attend:

In October, the Museum of New Mexico Press is publishing a new book about the
Preserve by Bill deBuys and Don Usner (see below).

They have invited the Coalition and Collected Works (bookstore) to host the
book-signing event in Santa Fe on Sunday, October 22. This will take place at
the Randall Davey Audubon Center. 4:00-6:00 pm. Collected Works has offered to
share with the Coalition proceeds from the book sales at this event.

Valles Caldera:
 A Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve
by William deBuys and Don J. Usner
 

Museum of New Mexico Press. October 2006. Clothbound: $34.95, 128 pages, two
essays, 59 color and eight black-and-white photographs, one map, appendix of
captions highlighting the cultural and natural history that can be seen in the
photographs.

In July 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Valles Caldera
Preservation Act, a visionary piece of legislation that transferred to the
public domain an 89,000-acre, privately owned ranch in the Jemez Mountains of
northern New Mexico. The Valles Caldera had already been the focus of intense
public interest for decades for good reason: it is a land of superlatives – in
terms of its beauty, productivity, ecological and geological significance,
scientific interest, cultural importance, and sheer magnificence.

The Valles Caldera (caldera of valleys) embraces several spacious,
breathtaking grasslands, only one of which is visible from Highway 4 one
half-hour west of Los Alamos. These valleys and surrounding mountains give
rise to the headwaters of the Jemez River, a Wild and Scenic River that flows
through the Santa Fe National Forest, Jemez Pueblo, Jemez Springs, and Zia
Pueblo on its way to the Rio Grande.
 
The Preserve encompasses the volcanic crater at the heart of the Jemez
Mountains. After two formative eruptions more than one million years ago,
volcanic domes pushed up from the caldera floor in a pattern that looks like
the print of a bear’s paw. Ancient lakes left wave-worn shorelines and layers
of fine sediments that now support the extensive, productive grasslands that
are valued by wildlife and humans alike.

This book tells the natural and human history of the Preserve with essays and
photographs that invoke a sense of wonder about these valleys and mountains,
forests, grasslands, streams and geothermal springs, and wildlife, less
disturbed here than anywhere else in the Jemez.

Valles Caldera also tells the story of the unique social experiment now
underway to manage the Preserve as public land. The book is a touchstone,
calling attention to the powerful, inspiring landscape and to the management
ideals that gave rise to the Preserve.

William deBuys served as the first chairman of the board for the Valles
Caldera Trust from 2001 until his term expired in January 2005. He is the
author of several books, including Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and
Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range, River of Traps: A Village Life; and
Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California (all University of New
Mexico Press).

Don J. Usner was born and raised in New Mexico. He earned his M.A. in cultural
geography at the University of New Mexico. His books include Sabino’s Map:
Life in Chimayó’s Old Plaza, Benigna’s Chimayó: Cuentos from the Old Plaza,
and Route 66 On Tour: Legendary Architecture from Glenrio to Gallup (all
Museum of New Mexico Press).