Gila Conservation Coalition partners, Gila Resources Information Project and Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, are working in partnership with Amigos Bravos to identify “wetland jewels” in the Gila watershed.
This effort will help prioritize wetlands for protection and restoration that serve as keystone areas in the health of the watershed. As part of the project, we are looking for local watershed user’s input on the wetland functions (i.e. habitat creation, groundwater recharge, streamflow maintenance, sediment retention, etc.) that matter most to them and their activities within the watershed.
Once the top wetland functions are identified, the project team will utilize high-detailed mapping analysis to identify the areas that contribute the most to these watershed functions. A map will be created of the analysis and shared with stakeholders, land managers, and restoration professionals so these areas can be prioritized in future restoration activities and management plans.
Please take 5 minutes to complete the survey so your opinions can be incorporated into the analysis.
If you have any questions, please contact Steven Fry – sfry@amigosbravos.org or 425.213.3906
The Gila National Forest is accepting public comment on its proposal to remove feral cattle that are degrading fish and wildlife habitat in the Gila Wilderness. Submit your comments by January 9th in support of the Gila National Forest’s plan to remove feral cattle from the Gila Wilderness. USFS Scoping Letter
The Gila National Forest estimates that there are between 50-150 feral cattle remaining in the Gila Wilderness – America’s first wilderness area. The cattle have caused damage to riparian areas by overgrazing and trampling streambanks causing erosion, dramatically degrading water quality and destroying fish and wildlife habitat, including habitat for threatened and endangered species.
There have been many attempts to round up this reproducing herd over the last 40 years and it will take a concerted effort to solve this problem once and for all. Lethal methods are necessary to successfully remove feral cattle from the remote and rugged wilderness in the most humane way for the cattle.
The Gila National Forest (GNF) estimates that there are between 50-250 feral cattle remaining in the Gila Wilderness – America’s first wilderness area. There have been many attempts to round up this reproducing herd over the last 40 years and it will take a concerted effort to solve this problem once and for all. Lethal methods are necessary to successfully remove feral cattle from the remote and rugged wilderness (see GNF feral cow history).
Authority
The GNF has full authority to remove unauthorized livestock from federal lands. Litigants, including the NM Cattle Growers Association, were denied a temporary restraining order requested to stop the 2022 Wildlife Services operation, because: the statutes cited by the plaintiffs didn’t preclude the GNF from taking action; they couldn’t show how the action caused harm; they were unlikely to prevail on the merits of the case; and the delay would impede the GNF responsibility to preserve its lands.
Ownership
Years of roundup experience and subsequent ecological monitoring have confirmed that the feral cows in the Gila Wilderness are unowned, unbranded, unauthorized animals that have been reproducing independently of any ranch. There are no ranches or active grazing allotments in close proximity.
Ecological Impacts
Several years of ecological monitoring with photo documentation have shown significant and long-lasting damage caused by the feral cows in the Gila Wilderness, particularly where cattle have concentrated near water sources such as the Gila River and springs. Monitoring reports available on request (reports available from 2017, ’18, ’19, ’21, ’22).
Humaneness
Roundups result in a greater than 50% mortality rate and pose great risk to the feral cattle that are captured and to the cowboys and horses used during roundup operations.
Waste
Extensive surveys were done 90 days after the 2022 Wildlife Services operation. No carcasses were found. Carrion-eating birds and animals completely consumed the carcasses.
Predators
It is likely that a small number of resident predators ate portions of the short-lived carcasses left by Wildlife Services. However, the electronic wolf tracking program showed no influx of wolves into the area and post-operation ecological monitoring did not detect an unusual number of black bears or other carnivores in the area. Additionally, Wildlife Services has stated that there is no science available that supports the claim that the operations will attract and acclimatize predators.
Water
Wildlife Services is committed to lethal removal of cattle away from waterways. In 2022, two bulls perished in the Gila River. The GNF promptly removed them from the water.
Public Safety
The portion of the Gila Wilderness where the feral cattle exist is a popular recreation area, supporting hunting, boating on the Gila River, and hikers on the Continental Divide Trail. There have been numerous reports of high-risk interactions between the public and the feral cows.
Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján reintroduced the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to protect segments of the Gila and San Francisco rivers and their tributaries as Wild and Scenic.
Join the Gila Conservation Coalition in thanking Senators Heinrich and Luján for their leadership and dedication to long-term protection of New Mexico’s last wild river.
First introduced in May 2020 by Senator Heinrich and former Senator Tom Udall, this legislation comes out of a community-led proposal and protects nearly 450 miles of the Gila and San Francisco as Wild and Scenic Rivers, ensuring that these reaches continue to provide for traditional and current use of the rivers, critical wildlife habitat, and our outdoor recreation economy.
The Gila and San Francisco and their tributaries make up one of the largest undammed watersheds in the Lower 48 states. Their natural flows support seven threatened and endangered species, such as the loach minnow and spike dace, some of the last intact cottonwood-sycamore bosque in the Lower Colorado River Basin, and more than 350 species of birds. The Gila is the centerpiece of the local outdoor recreation economy and its clean waters provide farmers with water for irrigation.
The M.H. “Dutch” Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is named after Gila Conservation Coalition chairman Dutch Salmon who worked tirelessly for more than three decades to protect the free flow of the Gila and San Francisco rivers, defeating the ill-conceived Conner Dam and Mangas diversion proposals of the 1980s, successors to the failed Hooker Dam.
Please thank the Governor for protecting the Gila River and moving forward with water supply security for southwest NM
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed HB200 into law last week, ending the Gila River diversion project after more than 15 years of wasted time, money and effort.
In addition to prohibiting any expenditure of NM Unit Funds on a harmful diversion project, the bill also directs the Interstate Stream Commission to consult with the Water Trust Board on allocating the remaining $80 million in funding for priority water projects in southwest New Mexico. Bringing good governance to this funding process can ensure water supply resilience for everyone in the four-county area.
Please take a minute to thank the Governor for her commitment to the Gila River and water supply security in southwest New Mexico.
Bill will fast track funds to local water projects and prohibit spending on diversion
In the last few days of this year’s legislative session, House Bill 200 passed the Senate floor by a vote of 26-15!
HB200 is an essential step in bringing good governance to NM Unit Fund spending. Our communities have been waiting for more than a decade to access this funding for critical water supply projects. Now we can stop the waste of millions of dollars on a failed Gila diversion project and move forward with rapid and efficient disbursement of funding to priority water projects in southwest New Mexico.
The bill is currently on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk for signature after which it will become law.
Thank you so much for your help this session getting this important legislation passed. Your emails and phone calls to legislators over the past several weeks made the difference in pushing the bill over the finish line.
This latest success is the culmination of years of support and action taken by you to protect the Gila River and to achieve equitable and cost-effective solutions to our water supply needs in southwest New Mexico.
The Gila Conservation Coalition will continue to work to ensure follow through on the gains that we have made in order to build a secure water future for everyone in the four-county area and protect the Gila River for future generations.
Many thanks to bill sponsors Representative Matthew McQueen, Representative Nathan Small, Senator Mimi Stewart, and Senator Siah Correa Hemphill who worked so hard to get HB200 through the legislature.
Although COVID-19 will prevent gathering in person, the pandemic won’t stop the Gila River Festival from meeting virtually to celebrate New Mexico’s last wild river.
The 16th Annual Gila River Festival will take place online September 18 and 19, 2020 and will explore how we cultivate resilience in our communities and ecological systems in the face of the twin crises of climate change and the global coronavirus pandemic. What lessons have we learned from the pandemic that can inform our response to the climate emergency? How can we create a more just and equitable society and emerge stronger and better from these existential challenges? How do we move forward with spending Arizona Water Settlement Act funding to create a secure water future for everyone in southwest New Mexico?
We will meet online for an inspiring keynote presentation by ethnobotanist, agricultural ecologist and writer Gary Paul Nabhan. The author of Food From the Radical Center, Growing Food In a Hotter, Drier Land, The Desert Smells Like Rain, and many others, Nabhan will talk about how rural communities in the Southwest borderlands can rebuild their economies using local knowledge and natural resources that simultaneously benefit human health, generate new livelihoods, and restore ecosystems.
The festival also features panel discussions, trainings, virtual guided hikes, networking, music, poetry, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, and more.
Through our state-of-the art online conference platform, participants will be able to watch and interact live throughout the two-day festival.
The 16th annual Gila River Festival is an opportunity to learn, collaborate and get energized for the challenges that lie ahead for our community, the Gila River and its watershed.
Registration and full festival schedule will be available August 1, 2020 at www.gilariverfestival.org
Thank you to our 2020 festival sponsors:
Major sponsors: New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Center for Biological Diversity, High-Lonesome Books, New Mexico Wild, Western Institute for Lifelong Learning, Cissy McAndrew United County Mimbres Realty
Sponsors: Pitchfork Ranch, Gila Native Plant Society, Ann McMahon Photography, Gila Haven, Defenders of Wildlife
Friends: Lindee Lenox & Shelby Hallmark, Sierra Club, Southern NM Group, Linda & Lee Hannan, Ron Henry, Silver City Food Co-op, Morning Star, Vicki Allen, MSW, LCSW, Lynda Aiman-Smith, SWNM Audubon Society, Lone Mountain Natives, Pauline & Richard Matthews Carol Morrison, Ron Parry, David Rose & Ceil Murray, Desert Woman Botanicals, Silver Architects, Single Socks, First New Mexico Bank, MaryAnn Finn & Melvyn Gelb
The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Gila River diversion project (NM Unit) proposed by the NM Central Arizona Project (CAP) Entity.
As joint leads for the NEPA process the BOR and the ISC are taking public comment until June 8 on four diversion/storage action alternatives and the no action alternative.
Tell the Bureau of Reclamation to select the No Action Alternative
It’s well past time to stop wasting NM Unit Funds on the failed Gila diversion planning process and instead direct funding to priority community water projects to meet the needs of everyone in southwest New Mexico.
The proposed New Mexico Unit alternatives do not pass even minimum standards of viability:
Financially infeasible – Project water under all alternatives is too expensive for farmers to buy. Even assuming public subsidy for project construction costs, the cost of water per acre-foot likely exceeds farmers’ willingness to pay.
Not economically viable – Costs to the economy as a whole for all diversion alternatives are greater than the benefits. None of the action alternatives “maximize public benefits” as required by the Water Resources Development Act, and therefore the no action alternative should be selected.
Unfair – The NM Unit Fund should be used to implement priority water projects in southwest New Mexico benefiting 60,000 people, rather than to subsidize water for a handful of irrigators.
Harmful to threatened and endangered species and riparian habitat along the Gila and San Francisco rivers – NM Unit diversion alternatives will decrease stream flow and cause disturbance that will adversely affect native vegetation and degrade riparian habitat, impacting threatened and endangered birds, native fish and snakes.
Impact historic and cultural properties and human remains – All alternatives will impact many historic and cultural sites, such as small pueblos, pithouse villages, and rock art sites, as well as disturb human remains significant to Tribes.
Advocate for the No Action Alternative
Immediate and future water needs in southwest New Mexico can be met cost-effectively by implementing non-diversion alternatives. We can spend the NM Unit Fund (more than $70 million) on priority community water projects that will create a secure water supply for 60,000 people far into the future without building a costly Gila diversion that requires massive ongoing public subsidy to benefit a very few and damages significant cultural resources and ecologically critical riparian habitat.
Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced this morning introduction of the M.H. “Dutch” Salmon Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to protect segments of the Gila and San Francisco rivers as Wild and Scenic.
The Gila Conservation Coalition thanks Senators Udall and Heinrich for their leadership and dedication to long-term protection of New Mexico’s last wild river.
And thank you for your support for the Wild and Scenic bill. This legislation is possible due to the broad base of support for protection of the Gila from community members, Tribes, sportsmen and women, veterans, small business owners, faith and civic organizations, local municipalities and governments, and outdoor recreation and conservation organizations.
The M.H. “Dutch” Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is named after Gila Conservation Coalition chairman Dutch Salmon who worked for more than three decades to protect the free flow of the Gila and San Francisco rivers, defeating the ill-conceived Conner Dam and Mangas diversion proposals of the 1980s, successors to the failed Hooker Dam.
This is a wonderful tribute to Dutch’s legacy as a tireless advocate for protection of these rivers.
The Gila and San Francisco and their tributaries make up one of the largest undammed watersheds in the Lower 48 states. Their natural flows support seven threatened and endangered species, such as the loach minnow and spike dace, some of the last intact cottonwood-sycamore bosque in the Lower Colorado River Basin, and more than 350 species of birds. The Gila is the centerpiece of the local outdoor recreation economy and its clean waters provide farmers with water for irrigation.
This legislation comes out of a community-led proposal and protects 446 miles of the Gila and San Francisco as Wild and Scenic Rivers, ensuring that these reaches continue to provide for traditional and current use of the rivers, critical wildlife habitat, and our outdoor recreation economy.
And thank you for your support for this proposal without which this legislation would not be possible.
Please join us in celebrating Dutch’s legacy and thanking Senators Udall and Heinrich for their leadership and encourage them as they move this bill through Congress.
On April 17, the Bureau of Reclamation released for public review and comment the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Gila diversion (NM Unit Draft EIS). Public comments are due on June 8.
The Gila Conservation Coalition is hosting a Zoom informational webinar on Monday, May 11 at 1pm. Register today to learn more about the DEIS and how to effectively comment on the document.
What: Gila Diversion Draft EIS Informational Webinar
On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, help us protect the Gila River.
On April 17, the Bureau of Reclamation released for public review and comment the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Gila diversion (NM Unit Draft EIS). Public comments are due on June 8.
The Gila Conservation Coalition is reviewing the document and preparing our evaluation.
Please sign up to help us advocate on behalf of the free-flowing river!