Governor Richardson has been named the "Champion of the Gila River, New Mexico's Last Wild River," by the Gila Conservation Coalition and its national, state, and local partners. At the second annual Gila River Day in the State Capitol Rotunda, the governor will be presented with this award. Governor Richardson earned this honor for his accomplishments in 2007: stating his desire to protect the Gila River for future generations, and redirecting the Gila River planning process to one that is consensus-based and that studies a range of alternatives, including the "no diversion" option. Gila River Day is a celebration of the Gila River, New Mexico's last free-flowing river and one of the jewels of our land of enchantment. For more details, see story below.

During this year’s legislative session, the Gila Conservation Coalition along with its conservation partners from around New Mexico, and state elected officials will come together for the 2nd Annual Gila River Day. The event is an opportunity to learn about Gila River restoration and protection efforts and the latest in the Gila planning process under the Arizona Water Settlements Act.

SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE:

Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish
Representative Mimi Stewart
Estevan Lopez, Director, Interstate Stream Commission
Ron Curry, Secretary, New Mexico Environment Department
Bruce Thompson, Director, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
Sandy Buffett, Executive Director, Conservation Voters of New Mexico

Presentation of “Champion of the Gila River” award to
Governor Bill Richardson

Additionally, a number of local, state, and national conservation groups, will be on-hand with information about their Gila River conservation efforts.

Gila River Day is sponsored by the Gila Conservation Coalition in partnership with Center for Biological Diversity, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Gila Resources Information Project, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, Gila Native Plant Society, Southwest New Mexico Audubon, Amigos Bravos, Environment New Mexico, The Nature Conservancy, Rio Grande Restoration, Audubon New Mexico, Far-flung Adventures and Conservation Voters of New Mexico.

Please join us for Gila River Day on Tuesday, January 29, from 1:30 to 2:30 pm, in the State Capitol Rotunda in Santa Fe. Light refreshments will be served.

  by M.H. "Dutch" Salmon
Gila Conservation Coalition Chair

Best I recall, I met Mike because I needed someone to fix my truck. This would have been the early 1980s. A mutual friend, the late Bob Langsenkamp, had told me central Grant County was the “old hippie burial ground,” and when I first saw Mike at his shop (we both lived in the Mimbres at the time) I thought, "Bob's right again; here's another one!" Looking like John Muir, but of placid rather than fiery demeanor, Mike proved a bundle of contradictions, with the trappings of a live-for-today lifestyle but in reality a careful and competent mechanic and a quiet but bulldog tenacity for the right cause. We soon both found one in the Gila River.

I fished. Mike was struck by the river's beauty. We both floated it, but neither one of us was going to let the State Engineer, the Bureau of Reclamation (BoR), or the local boosters sully our playground with Hooker Dam or Conner Dam or the Mangas Diversion. And so the redneck enviro and the hippie enviro started the Gila Conservation Coalition. And we started kicking butt. I got appointed to the Interstate Stream Commission, but Herbie Marsden and Jim Goodkind and especially Mike did all the dirty work: lobbying, organizing, writing letters to the editor, satirizing and making sense of the untenable economics of a boondoggle project. And when the big public hearing came to Light Hall in 1986, the river's friends outnumbered the dam builders; a gut shot as it turned out. As one BoR engineer told me: "When a big federal water project can't get majority support in the town it's supposed to benefit, that project is in trouble."

Later, Mike would journey with me to a hearing at Glenwood Ranger Station where we achieved a partial closure to off-road vehicles (ORVs) in the San Francisco Canyon. Fearless, Mike the mechanic chastised the ORV clubs for abusing their vehicles in the river crossings (as well as the canyon itself) and for changing their oil on the beaches of what should have been a pristine wilderness.

For a time, we teamed with a strangely humorous and committed Oklahoma farmer named David Sheegog. The plan of the boosters this time was a road up the East Fork of the Gila River that played out in the courts, the Forest Service, and the County Commission. The courts were no match for an East Fork landowner named Frank Werber, the Forest Service, shaken by Sheegog's down-home bombast, just used common sense on behalf of the resource. Mike and I both spoke the night the Grant County Commission wisely declined to take on the expense and liability of an East Fork road.  Mike drifted into a decades’-long cause to rid the Diamond Bar Ranch of cows. Here, bad management and bovine riparian concentrations were ruining a vast landscape and a number of stream courses. I don't have to tell you that his new group, "Gila Watch" won that one too. He's been quieter of late, tending to a successful Gila Hike & Bike business, and now I hear he's moving to Maine. He'll be missed here and will no doubt be underestimated there, till they figure out this placid John Muir hides a bulldog tenacity for the right cause. Give 'em hell Mike, and thanks for the memories!

Teach Your Children Well

by Maria Russell
Gila Conservation Education Center

There's a kid in the front of the class, hand straining above his head, who can't wait to tell me that the skull in my hands is a mountain lion's. In a different classroom, on another day, a third-grader watches as water from a spray bottle falls on to crumpled aluminum foil, trickling down the sharp edges and collecting in dips of the foil. Her group is arguing whether to call the now-forming pond Green Lake or Bear Lake. It's not hard to get kids interested in science or in conservation. They like learning more about the animals, rocks, and rivers around them.

The lesson plans for the Gila Conservation Education Center's trunk program center around involving kids' natural sense of wonder and fun to get them curious about their local environment and spending time outside. The Gila Conservation Coalition, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, and Gila Conservation Education Center (yes, the similarity in our names does cause some confusion!) all partnered to create two Gila River Discovery trunks. One trunk focuses on the natural history of the Gila River, with its unique plant and animal communities. The second trunk highlights the cultural history of the Gila River: which peoples settled along the river, and how the river was central to their lives. All of the presentations are done by community volunteers--some experts in the field, some people who are just interested in the subject and want to learn along with the kids. The involvement and support that our volunteers have given this program are greatly appreciated, by the GCEC staff, by the teachers, and most importantly, by the children. For the 2007-2008 school year, GCEC has over 200 requests for presentations through the trunks program. If you are interested in becoming involved, contact the Gila Conservation Education Center at 388-8265 or email@gcecnm.org.