Greetings Friends of Bandelier!
As I move into my second year, I want to again express my thanks to all of you who have contributed, with your time, your donations, and your support for the Friends of Bandelier! Friends groups such as yours are a key component in managing such significant and critical public lands such as Bandelier for all Americans, and for all the generations to come. It has long been recognized that Federal funds don’t fully cover all the complicated and nuanced needs that parks face in today’s world. The fundraising and volunteer force that a Friends group provides a park is critical in helping us meet our short and long term goals. Thank you for being a critical part of the Bandelier team!
With your comments and support, we completed our 5 year strategic plan last year. If you have not seen our final strategic plan, I invite you to view it on our web page, or at this link: BAND-Strategic- Action-Plan-2022-to-2027.pdf (nps.gov) Our strategic plan envisions a cooperative alliance between agencies and jurisdictions across the Pajarito Plateau and Jemez Mountains. Science and discovery, ancestral and traditional connections and visitor experiences are coordinated across partners with the idea that experiences in one area might suggest a visit to another. To achieve that, we have identified focus areas that will inform our work plan over the coming years. Those areas include tribal collaboration and engagement, visitor management and experience, adaptive management, partnerships, and staffing. It is my hope that all of our staff, cooperators and our Friends group will be able to see themselves and their critical role in fulfilling these exciting goals.
To that end, in the past year, we have worked to emphasize the voices of our tribal partners and have sought to ensure that their perspective is incorporated into every key decision. After the tragic vandalism of Cave Kiva, both Cochiti Pueblo and San Ildefonso Pueblo came to the park to view the damage, and to advise us on how to move forward. Santa Clara Pueblo provided comments, and The All Pueblo ’s Council of Governors asked the park to brief the group on the status of the damage. The park is working on a treatment plan for the damage, and we are considering options on how to change visitor use of the site to further ensure the site is protected. Our tribal partner’s advice was key in creating these options, and we hope to share our range of solutions with them in the coming months.
A lot of very exciting projects were accomplished over the last year as well. The first phase of the stabilization of Alcove House was completed. In this phase, a large stone retaining wall was constructed in front of the Kiva. The wall will hopefully help retain more of the sediment in the site that has been eroding at an alarming rate. The next phase of the project will involve creating some sort of durable surface to further stabilize the fragile site. In the meantime, we will continue to limit the number of people permitted in the site during busy summer hours. Last year, we staffed Alcove House between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., limiting the number of people in the site to 15. Though the effort was labor intensive, it created some meaningful interpretive moments with park visitors who learned about traditional and ancestral tribes with ties to the area, and about how to respectfully visit sites that have great importance to our tribal partners.
Visitor parking was limited this fall due to the ongoing roofing project in the historic district. Roofs werereplaced on the Administration Building, the Park Store and several housing units among others, with durable PVC roofs that should help preserve the historic buildings for years. Also, the historic patio behind the park store has been re-opened, as it was in the 1930s. It will be open to the public this coming summer. The bridges that were washed away with the floods that followed the Cerro Grande Fire are currently being replaced. Within the next month or so, 7 new bridges will allow visitors to cross between the picnic area, Nature Trail and the Pueblo Loop Trail without impacting park resources. The large utility replacement project that was slated to begin this year has been moved to 2024 due to competing national priorities. The project will replace the water, gas, and electric supply to the historic district, and will lay out the infrastructure for better connectivity. Though the project is very important to the park, it will severely impact visitors to the Monument while the main road is torn up to replace existing lines.
The project to improve the Frey Trail Parking Area and the Tsankawi Parking area is slated to begin late this spring. We don’t anticipate impacts to visitors at the Frey Trail. The park’s Tsankawi Unit will need to be closed for the duration of the project as there will be no safe access to the site. The closure of the site will allow the park an opportunity to re-route the main trail out of the middle of the pueblo to reduce impacts to the site; a mitigation that the park promised to the members of San Ildefonso during discussions of the Tsankawi Management Plan.
We continue to look for ways to better serve our visitors. The park has been looking at ways to improve the camping experience in the park. We now believe that the opportunity for families to reserve campsites will greatly improve their ability to plan vacations moving forward. We are considering utilizing the national campground reservation system, Rec.gov, for campground and backcountry reservations, possibly by early summer. We will be seeking public comments on this proposal within the next few weeks. We would love to hear your opinions on the subject, so please watch for the invitation for public comments.
Overall, we are looking forward to another exciting year in the Monument. Our visitation has returned to our 10 year average, after spiking in 2021. The mandatory shuttle will be operating as normal again this year, and the restaurant should be open daily beginning in March. We are looking forward to many great special events this year with the support of the Friends of Bandelier. We hope to again host a Naturalization Ceremony this Constitution Day: a terrific event that was supported by your donations last year. We will host several cultural demonstrators and hopefully some traditional dancers. We are considering hosting a luminaria/farolito event in early December similar to what Pecos National Monument has held in the past. This community event, if it happens, would rely heavily on the support of the Friends of Bandelier. I hope you are as excited about this as we are!
As we look forward to this exciting year, I hope you will join me in supporting the Friends of Bandelier. We could not achieve any of these exciting goals without your help and support.
Thanks again for your dedication and support!
Sincerely,
Patrick Suddath
Superintendent