VCT News:

JEMEZ SPRINGS – The Valles Caldera Trust board of trustees has rescheduled its meeting in public to Sept. 26 at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder in Pojoaque instead of the originally planned Sept. 19 date in Espanola.

The meeting is pushed back a week to accommodate the return of Dr. Melissa Savage and Dr. C. Kenneth Smith to the board of trustees. The White House recently announced President Barack Obama’s intent to nominate both former trustees for reappointment to the board. Their previous terms expired in January 2013.

By statute each trustee position is filled with a specific expertise needed to guide the management of the preserve.

Savage will resume her post as the trustee uniquely qualified to fulfill the need of a person with expertise in the natural and cultural history of the area. She is the director of the Four Corners Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides scientific advice to communities restoring their natural environments. She was first appointed to serve on the Valles Caldera Trust board in 2010.

Smith resumes his position on the board as the trustee with expertise in sustainable forest management. Smith is a professor of forestry and geology and university gorester at the University of the South in Tennessee. Previously, he served as director of New Mexico’s Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, from 2007- 2009. He was first appointed to the board 2010.

Savage and Smith will be sworn in at the Sept. 26 Board of Trustees meeting. The board will conduct a meeting in public from 1-4 p.m., which will include a public comment period. A link to the agenda and map to the hotel are posted on the Trust’s website at http://ow.ly/onQ3c.