In August the Gila National Forest released its revised Land Management Plan. Despite extensive involvement by New Mexico Wild and our volunteers in the decade-long planning process in inventorying and providing detailed documentation and comments on wilderness-quality lands and extraordinary rivers and streams across the Gila National Forest, the Land Management Plan significantly disappointed by administratively protecting only a fraction of these special lands and waters as Recommend Wilderness and Eligible Wild and Scenic Rivers. These administrative designations are critical in providing interim protections for wilderness-quality and extraordinary rivers and recommending Congressional action to formally designate Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers, which provide robust, permanent protections.
Due to these deficiencies, New Mexico Wild submitted a formal objection on the Gila's Land Management Plan designations of Recommended Wilderness and Eligible Wild and Scenic Rivers. We also signed onto another objection led by partner organizations that addresses deficiencies related to grazing, riparian areas, watersheds, rare plants, wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, monitoring, and roads. These objections document flaws and issues in the planning process and could result in improvements in the final Land Management Plan.
We seek Interested Persons who submitted comments during the Gila's Land Management Planning process to join us in an objection resolution meeting with the Forest Service Southwestern Regional Office. Interested Persons will help us demonstrate strong community support for improving the Gila's Land Management Plan.
To register as an Interested Person, visit the Gila National Forest Comment Page at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=51887 and input the information summarized under the "Interested Persons Requests" header into the web form at the bottom of the page.
Interested Persons must register by October 21.
The Forest Service has not determined the exact date and time for the objection resolution meeting, but they anticipate it being held in January 2025. The purpose of the meeting is to gain additional clarity on specific objections and to allow the Forest Service to explore potential remedies to objection issues. During this meeting, Interested Persons will be able to provide their perspective on the issues highlighted in these objections.
If you did not submit formal comments you are still welcome to observe the objection resolution meeting. Observers of the objection resolution meeting contribute to demonstrating a strong show of community support for improving the Gila's Land Management Plan. Additional information about the meeting including the exact dates, times, format, location, and agenda will be provided by the Forest Service a few weeks before the meeting. Stay tuned for more information from New Mexico Wild in the coming weeks!
