Congratulations to the winners of the 8th annual Gila River Festival Three-Minute Film Fest!
Best in Show – “Burn to River” Peter Bill, WNMU Expressive Arts Department
Runner-up – “Rafting the Gila” Dennis Weller
Most aspiring new artist – “The Wild Gila with Wild Kids” Sterling and Hannah Wecks
Thanks to all of the film makers who submitted their films to the competition. There were 15 films submitted with 11 films competing for awards. Special thanks to Claire Catlett of Gila Resources Information Project, GRIP summer intern Avery Jepson-Browne, and Junchen Huang and Peter Bill of the WNMU Expressive Arts Department for their efforts in coordinating the festival including development of festival trailer and additional films.
8th Annual Gila River Festival Presents
The Wild River Speaks!
Southwest’s Premier Nature Festival
Scheduled for September 13 – 16, 2012
The 8th annual Gila River Festival – planned in and around Silver City, September 13-16, 2012 – will celebrate through storytelling the natural and cultural heritage of the Gila River, New Mexico’s last free-flowing river. One of the Southwest’s premier nature festivals, the Gila River Festival attracts an audience of nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts eager to learn about and experience the Gila’s natural wonders. Read more here.
Michael Berman Releases New Book Gila: Radical Visions / The Enduring Silence
Opening and Book Release Party Scheduled for Gila River Festival September 13
Guggenheim Fellow landscape photographer Michael Berman will release his newest book of photography, Gila: Radical Visions / The Enduring Silence during this year’s Gila River Festival at an opening reception and book release party scheduled for September 13 from 4 – 7 pm at Bear Mountain Lodge in Silver City.
Berman’s black-and white photographs of the Gila Wilderness offer a wordless exploration into this complex and subtle landscape. For more than thirty years, he has explored the vast Gila, fascinated by the land and how people use and value it. He has wandered deep into the forest with his large-format camera, searching for the untrammeled and solitary ecosystems, allowing the Gila to reveal itself. The untouched specialness of the Gila is captured in Berman’s photographs and explored in fifteen essays by noted writers, natural historians, and environmentalists.
A former Guggenheim fellow and 2012 recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Berman’s works have been exhibited throughout the country and are in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Amon Carter Museum. He lives in the Mimbres Valley, bordering the Gila Wilderness.
Essayists in Gila: Radical Visions / The Enduring Silence include Charles Bowden, Dave Foreman, Sharman Apt Russell, Philip Connors, Patrick Toomay, M.H. Dutch Salmon, Victor Masayesva, Alejandro Muñoz, Martha Schumann Cooper, Mary Katherine Ray, Rex Johnson, Jorge Garcia, John Horning, Guy McPherson, and Mary Ann Redding.
A selection of Berman’s photographs from the book will be displayed at Bear Mountain Lodge during the opening reception September 13, 4 – 7pm. Autographed copies of his two-volume slip-cased edition will be available for purchase, and all proceeds from book sales will benefit the Gila Conservation Coalition’s advocacy for a free-flowing Gila River. Enjoy refreshments provided by Bear Mountain Lodge.
Acclaimed Writer Craig Childs to Speak at Gila River Festival on September 14
Book signing, writing workshop and fundraiser dinner with author also scheduled
Craig Childs, acclaimed author of The Secret Knowledge of Water, House of Rain, and Animal Dialogues, will keynote the 8th Annual Gila River Festival with his multi-media presentation “Watercourse: Conversations With A Moving Element” scheduled for Friday night, September 14 at 7:45 pm at the Fine Arts Center Theater on the campus of Western New Mexico University. Suggested donation for admission is $12 for adults and $5 for students. Books by the author, including his soon-to-be-released Apocalyptic Planet, will be available for sale and the author will hold a book signing following his presentation. Proceeds from book sales will benefit the Gila Conservation Coalition.
Craig Childs is a writer who focuses on natural sciences, archaeology, and remarkable journeys into the wilderness. He has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on nature, science, and adventure. He is a commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Mountain Gazette, Outside, Orion, and High Country News. His subjects range from pre-Columbian archaeology to US border issues to the last free-flowing rivers of Tibet and Patagonia.
The expeditions Childs undertake often last weeks or months, informing his writing with a hard-earned sense of landscape and culture. The New York Times says “Childs’s feats of asceticism are nothing if not awe inspiring: he’s a modern-day desert father.” He has been called a “born storyteller” by the New York Sun, and the LA Times says his writing is “like pure oxygen,” and “stings like a slap in the face.” He has won several key awards including the 2011 Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award, 2008 Rowell Art of Adventure Award, the 2007 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and the 2003 Spirit of the West Award for his body of work, an honor he shares with Wallace Stegner, Terry Tempest Williams and N. Scott Momaday. Childs is an Arizona native, and grew up back and forth between there and Colorado. With a mother hooked on outdoor adventure, and a father who liked whiskey, guns, and Thoreau, his life was rigged from the start. In his teens, Childs began working as a river guide, and since then has held numerous jobs to support his field time, from gas station attendant to journalist to beer bottler. Now making a living as a writer, Childs lives off the grid with his wife and two young sons at the foot of the West Elk Mountains in Colorado.
Childs’ presentation will be preceded by “The Singularity,” an original performance by the Western New Mexico University Expressive Arts Department at 6:30 on Friday, September 14 at the Fine Arts Center Theater. The admission price includes both Childs’ keynote and the performance.
“The Singularity” posits a time when humans may choose to discard their biological form as advances in technology make natural systems, such as the cycle of life and death, redundant. A myth, born of the Inuit, will act as a guide through a fifty-minute exploration of these questions offered by the Expressive Arts Interdisciplinary Program (iDEA). Using sound, video, and live actors, we will consider the question of “The Singularity” and its impact on the river of life.
Childs will also teach a writing workshop on Thursday, September 13 from 1 – 4pm. “Writing the World” will teach participants how to see place and practice transferring that to written words. The workshop fee is $30 and registration is required (http://www.gilaconservation.org/wp/?page_id=245).
The Gila Conservation Coalition will be auctioning a private dinner with Craig Childs at Tre Rosat on Saturday, September 15 from 5 – 6:30 pm. Bids begin at $55 and are being accepted at the Gila Conservation Coalition Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gila-Cons … 8196505549). The five highest bidders will be notified that they have won on Friday night, September 14.
The 8th annual Gila River Festival – planned in and around Silver City, September 13-16, 2012 – will celebrate through storytelling the natural and cultural heritage of the Gila River, New Mexico’s last free-flowing river. One of the Southwest’s premier nature festivals, the Gila River Festival attracts an audience of nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts eager to learn about and experience the Gila’s natural wonders. Festival attendees will enjoy a variety of expert-guided field trips in the Gila National Forest and along the Gila River, a keynote talk by author Craig Childs, workshops, horseback riding, kayaking, visual and performing art exhibits and performances, a three-minute film fest, a downtown art walk and more.
Thanks to the following sponsors who have made the 8th Annual Gila River Festival possible:
Major Sponsors:
Anonymous ~ Bear Mountain Lodge ~ Center for Biological Diversity ~ Dennis Weller Photography ~ EZ Does It Ranch ~ Gila Haven ~ Gila Native Plant Society ~ Jim and Jackie Blurton & the Silver City KOA ~ KUNM ~ McCune Charitable Foundation ~ Meyoni Geougé: Onesuch Devoted Horse Guidance ~ A We the People Project by the New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities ~ Ode to Joy Art Collective ~ Pitchfork Ranch ~ Seedboat Center for the Arts ~ Stream Dynamics ~ Town of Silver City ~ Western New Mexico University Expressive Arts Department
Sponsors:
Audubon New Mexico ~ Bob Garrett & Mary Hotvedt ~ Carol Morrison ~ Cissy McAndrew United Country Mimbres Realty, EcoBroker™ & GREEN Realtor™ ~ Conservation Voters New Mexico Education Fund ~ Far Flung Adventures ~ In Memory of Gene Simon ~ Lisa Houston & Bob Wilson ~ Rinda Metz ~ Sandy Buffett ~ Sierra Club Southern New Mexico Group ~ Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society ~ Vicki Allen, LISW Psychotherapist for Adults & Children ~ Western Institute for Lifelong Learning
Friends:
Alotta Gelato ~ Anonymous ~ April Crosby & Merritt Helfferich ~ Conservation By Design ~ Curious Kumquat ~ David Rose & Ceil Murray ~ First New Mexico Bank Friends of the Gila River ~ Gerry & Frank Niva ~ Great West Trail ~ High Lonesome Books ~ Jesse Franklin-Owens ~ Jim & Cheryl Leidich ~ Mimbres Region Arts Council ~ New Mexico Wilderness Alliance ~ Pauline & Richard Matthews ~ Prudential Silver City Properties ~ Regalos de la Tierra Pottery Co. ~ Richard S. Bigelow Construction ~ Robert Pittman & Kathleen Wigley ~ Ron Henry ~ San Vicente Artists ~ Silver City Food Co-op ~ Single Socks Community Thrift Store ~ Summit Technical, Inc. ~ Super Salve Company ~ Syzygy Tileworks ~ TheraSpeech ~ W. Jay Garard, D.D.S. ~ Wentz Electric, LLCV
As part of the 8th annual Gila River Festival, the Gila Conservation Coalition is hosting its first Three-Minute Film Fest on Saturday, September 15 at 4pm at the Silco Theater at 311 N. Bullard St.
The Gila River Festival’s Three-Minute Film Fest incorporates this year’s festival theme: “The Wild River Speaks,” focused on stories of the Gila. Submissions consider thematic elements related to the role of the Gila River in our lives, as the ecological lifeblood of our area; as a connection to nature, our cultural and natural history and sense of place; and as an integral part of human spirituality.
Home to the nation’s first wilderness area, the Gila River in New Mexico is one of the last free-flowing rivers in the southwest. Those who explore the Gila River’s watershed know that the largely wild flow of the Gila River is the lifeblood of this national treasure and must be preserved for all time.
Prizes will be awarded following the premier of the films and include a Michael Berman original edition of his soon to be released book, Gila: Radical Visions / The Enduring Silence, as well as a photographic print from the book. Michael Berman is a recipient of a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2012 NM Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. To preview his latest work, as well as experience his previous work, visit his website, fragmentedimages.com/.
This beautiful one-of-a-kind art quilt features wildlife of southwest New Mexico’s Gila River, the last free-flowing river in the state. Artist Elli Sorensen donated this quilt as a fundraiser to protect the Gila from an ecologically harmful diversion. About the quilt: Artist Elli Sorensen created the silk face of this quilt bycombining her hand-carved block prints with hand painting, using nontoxic heat-set professional textile pigments. Special effects and finishing touches in the design were created with salt, wax and textile crayons on silk. The batting is silk, bamboo, botanic tencel and cotton, and the quilt backing is cotton. The piece was machine quilted by the artist on a Grace frame
with a Juki sewing machine, and the binding was hand-sewn. The quilt is machine washable (cold water, delicate cycle) and should be line-dried.
Where to buy tickets: You can purchase raffle tickets at the Silco Theater, headquarters for the Gila River Festival, and at the Friday and Saturday evening events at Western New Mexico University. Your last chance to buy raffle tickets is at the Sunday morning brunch, when we will choose the winning ticket.
Why to buy tickets: Need another reason to buy raffle tickets, other than the chance to win this stunning quilt? Here’s reason #2: Proceeds from the raffle will help the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance and the Gila Conservation Coalition to keep the Gila River wild and free.
Rainwater Harvesting, A Graceful Resolution for the Urban River
Hands-on Workshop to be held October 4 – 5 in Silver City
A free two-day workshop in various Silver City locations, presented by Stream Dynamics, Water- shed Management Group, the Gila Conservation Coalition, and the Town of Silver City Office of Sustainability. Learn how to convert nuisance stormwater runoff into a beneficial resource for people and the environment, protecting urban streams from flooding and water pollution, and providing free irrigation for food producing plants, street trees, and other beautiful landscaping. Participants will go by bus on a guided tour of successful local projects that irrigate landscaping every time it rains or snows, and design and actually build a water harvesting project on the last day. Includes three books and a binder full of resources. Part of the 2012 New Mexico Watershed Forum, sponsored by the New Mexico Environment Department. Information: (575) 388-5296 or streamdynamics@aznex.net.
$66 Million is available to meet water needs in southwest NM and an additional $34 – 62 million to develop Gila River water ($128 million total): Stakeholders in southwest NM are trying to determine how to use funding from the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA) to cost effectively balance water supply and demand while protecting the Gila River. THE $200 MILLION QUESTION – Two Choices: Southwest NM (Grant, Luna, Hidalgo and Catron counties) can use up to $128 million in a federal subsidy to cover only 40% of the project costs to divert up to 14,000 acre-feet per year from the Gila River and its tributary, the San Francisco, through a Gila River DAM and PIPELINE project OR INSTEAD Southwest New Mexico can use $66 million to meet local water needs.
THE WRONG CHOICE LEAVES TAXPAYERS HOLDING THE $200 MILLION BAG:
~ No need for Gila River water has been demonstrated in the four county area. Studies show that the regional aquifer contains enough water to supply Silver City for hundreds of years. Deming’s 2009 water plan demonstrates that it has already acquired enough water rights to meet future demand over the 40-year planning period.
~ A massive taxpayer-funded boondoggle. Gila River diversion would require major infrastructure in the Cliff-Gila Valley. This project would require a diversion dam and some combination of a huge pumping station, a power station, a massive pipeline and/or canal system and an off-stream dam and reservoir.
~ The boondoggle won’t benefit the local area: The state is scrambling to meet obligations to big cities in New Mexico and Texas. It’s almost certain that this water will leave the local area and get piped to the Rio Grande and on to Texas. ~ Bottom Line WE CAN’T AFFORD IT: The construction cost has been projected AT LEAST $300 million – more than double the promised $128 million federal subsidy. The additional cost would be shouldered by local taxpayers and burden local government with debt. At a time when federal, state and local budgets are spread thin, a diversion project outstrips our financial resources.
~ No seriously, WE REALLY CAN’T AFFORD IT: Given that annual exchange costs plus operation and maintenance costs total more than $8M per year, each acre-foot of Gila River water would cost $589 before including the capital costs of the dam and pipeline. These costs would be paid by the water users directly. Estimates of total construction cost for a project range from $193M - $300 M, tens of thousands of $/acrefoot.
THE RESPONSIBLE CHOICE:
Real Solutions for Southwest NM’s Long-term Water Needs: Implementation of proven conservation and water efficiency measures can sharply reduce the amount of water needed in the future at a fraction of the cost of a Gila River dam and pipeline project. Conservation and sustainable use of groundwater can secure our water future without building a costly diversion project that will alter the character of the Gila River forever. These strategies range in cost from $11- $360/acre-foot for municipal conservation, $517/acrefoot for drip irrigation, and $98-$274/acre-foot for sustainable groundwater management. These solutions compare to tens of thousands of dollars/acre-foot for construction of a Gila River diversion project.
IT’S UP TO YOU:
Email or call the Interstate Stream Commission members today and tell them you want responsible and cost-effective non-diversion alternatives, such as municipal and agricultural conservation and sustainable groundwater management, evaluated during the 2012 – 2013 assessment phase of the AWSA planning process.
Congratulations to the winners of the 8th annual Gila River Festival Three-Minute Film Fest! 
