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.
Over six weeks in the Summer of 2022, Esther Chiang, Riley Glancy, Nikita Hahn, Hannah Hicks, Linfeng Li and Zhangyanyang Yao, a group of graduate students from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, worked with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies to do research and conduct a feasibility assessment on the reintroduction of beavers to the Inspiration Ridge Preserve (IRP). The IRP is a 700-acre wildlife habitat off of Skyline Drive, now managed by CACS after being donated by Nina Faust and Ed Bailey. The IRP is focused on education and conservation of the local land and animals and limits the daily number of visitors to keep the land in its conserved state.