Gila River system should receive Wild and Scenic designation
Last month, I flew to our nation’s capital to ask Congress to protect a special place for me: the Wild Gila River. The trip was not an easy one. Being confronted with a busy city during the height of tourist season would be hard enough for someone who calls the Gila country home, but as a Navy SEAL veteran, it made it harder. The large crowds were overwhelming, the buildings overpowering, but my passion for protecting the Gila River somehow overshadowed all of that.
One of the reasons I choose to live so close to the Gila is because it is a slow, peaceful place that calms my brain. As a lifelong New Mexican, I have long understood the value of our country’s waters.
As a veteran, I go there for a form of therapy, just as many veterans turn to our waters to reflect and heal from what they experienced during deployment. The fresh air, natural beauty and rushing waters help us recover and heal. But their restorative powers are not just beneficial to veterans: first responders, those who are fighting addiction, or those struggling with mental illness have found comfort and strength there.
Returning from my service to our country, the canyons and rivers of the Gila National Forest have been a refuge to me for over 30 years. Its calm, quiet waters and abundant wildlife make it an unexpected oasis in the Southwest United States.
So it is with this appreciation for the Gila River that I flew to Washington, D.C., to ask our elected officials to give back to a place that has given us so much. I was joined by the vice chair of the Ft. Sill Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache Tribe and a Grant County commissioner. We all shared with our elected officials and staff our love for the Gila and asked them to continue to work to protect this unique area.
Our presence did not come as a surprise; for years New Mexicans ranging from small business owners, local elected officials, hunters and anglers, community members, and veterans like myself have been asking Congress to safeguard this special place.
All they need to do now is listen to New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation, which reintroduced legislation to safeguard the Gila River for the third time. The M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act would preserve 450 miles of the Gila and San Francisco rivers as Wild and Scenic.
This special designation, which is given to some of America’s most wellknown rivers, would ensure people can always have access to and enjoy the Gila and San Francisco rivers.
The bill has passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with bipartisan support, showing the common ground Americans find when they come together to protect something they cherish.
The Gila River has supplied water to the ranch and farmlands of the Gila valley, Bill Evans Lake mining operations for decades. It is time that Congress starts to look to our lands and waters as ways to safeguard our rural American way of life.
The Gila River system originating in the Gila Wilderness – America’s first designated wilderness – deserves Wild and Scenic River status; not only for its own sake, but also for the benefit of generations to come.