The Gila National Forest in New Mexico is home to Earth’s first wilderness area, established by the Forest Service 100 years ago today and 40 years before the Wilderness Act was signed into law. Aldo Leopold, a Forest Service supervisor working in New Mexico at the time, spearheaded the effort to preserve the land.
Leopold opposed expansion of a road system on the Gila and proposed instead that a large area be left roadless and preserved as wilderness. He saw the importance of preserving biological diversity and natural systems, and with local support, Leopold’s vision prevailed, inspiring wilderness preservation worldwide.
While working on the Gila in 1918, Leopold wrote, “When the pioneer hewed a path for progress through the American wilderness, there was bred into the American people the idea that civilization and forests were two mutually exclusive propositions…. A stump was our symbol of progress. We have since learned, with some pains, that extensive forests are not only compatible with civilization, but absolutely essential to its highest development.”
The Gila also encompasses Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Catwalk Recreation Area, and Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky Sanctuary.
Cosmic Campground Dark Sky Sanctuary, the first in North America, is on the Gila National Forest.
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument preserves the dwellings of the Mogollon people, Ancestral Puebloans contemporary to the Anasazi and Hohokam cultures to the north and west of the Gila.
Catwalk Recreation Area provides a uniquely accessible opportunity to experience rugged canyon-country terrain of the Mogollon mountains. The original catwalk was built to support a mill for gold and silver ore in Whitewater Canyon. In the mid-1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt the Catwalk, but it was washed away in 2012. Repairs have reopened the Catwalk for approximately ½ mile.
Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky Sanctuary is one of only 14 locations in the world certified to meet Dark Sky Sanctuary requirements, the most stringent standard for certification by the International Dark-Sky Association.
Featured Photo: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument lies within the Gila National Forest, which is also home to the world’s first wilderness area.
