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Address:

P.O. Box 383
Gila, NM 88038

Phone Number:

575-590-5698

Showing 8 record(s).

Program Name

Children's Water Festival

​Program Name

​Children's Water Festival

Program Description

The Children's Water Festival is a unique educational event that allows the 5th graders of Grant, Hidalgo and Luna Counties to visit and explore the Gila River and learn about the ecology of the watershed. The Upper Gila Watershed Alliance (UGWA) partners with the Ella Jaz Watershed Project to help students make lasting connections with the riparian habitat and its plants and animals. Given this opportunity, students learn to love the river and, as a result, they desire to protect it.

Despite the river's proximity to Silver City, every year we find students who have never been to the Gila River. The festival brings both fun and educational experiences to the students and the families in our community.

Prior to the festival, presenters bring the Gila Natural History trunks into the classrooms. Students watch the river coming alive through dramatic play as they learn about the plants and animals of the river ecosystem. Hands-on activities help students compare and contrast free-flowing and managed rivers, and recognize the Gila as the last free-flowing river in New Mexico.

The Children's Water Festival honors the memory of Ella Jaz Kirk, Ella Meyers, and Michael Mahl, teen conservation leaders who died in May 2014. The three created the Gila River Natural History trunks during their sophomore year as members of a Youth Ecological Monitoring team, and were teachers at the Children's Water Festival in spring 2014.

​Beneficiaries

Children Only (5 - 14 years)
Wildlife Enthusiasts

Tamarisk Eradication

​Program Name

Tamarisk Eradication

Program Description

Tamarisk Troubles in the Gila

Although some may view blooming tamarisk (salt cedar) as beautiful, those who understand the threat of invasive species recognize that they have negative impacts on watersheds, native vegetation, and wildlife.

Eradicating tamarisk has been a priority of the invasive species management team of the Gila National Forest for several years. Before the problem grew too big to tackle, UGWA obtained grants from the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance and from a federal program called Secure Rural Schools, to collaborate with the Forest Service on tamarisk removal on the Gila River. The work focused mainly in the Gila Wilderness and employed residents from rural communities.

To eradicate tamarisk, small crews hike, ride horses, or float rafts into the Gila Wilderness Area, starting at various access points. Armed with loppers and hand saws, the crew cuts the tamarisks, which often have dozens of stems, and pile the cut branches far from the river so they won't be washed downstream to sprout elsewhere. Because salt cedars re-sprout from stumps and are notoriously difficult to kill, all of the areas will be resurveyed and cut again in subsequent years.

With support, approval, and expertise of the Forest Service and the muscle power of the local resident crew members, we are striving to nip the tamarisk problem in the bud (literally) before it becomes an overwhelming problem.

Beneficiaries

Wildlife Enthusiasts

Mogollon Box Day Use Area​

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Program Name

Mogollon Box Day Use Area

Program Description

Twenty years ago, people drove their trucks into the Gila River, and some even dumped their oil in it. Roads were everywhere in this popular spot down by the river. Head down there now, though, and it's a lush riparian bosque.
In 2011, UGWA received federal funding through the Secure Rural Schools program to finish an incomplete Forest Service boulder barrier in the campground. Years ago, the Gila National Forest had placed boulders in the campground to obstruct vehicular access, but they ran out of funding and never completed the project. Some of the boulders were undercut by Mogollon Creek and fell into the streambed. And some persistent drivers muscled rocks out of their way and defiantly continued to the river, despite the obvious "no vehicles" signage.

The UGWA contractor strategically positioned big boulders - some that were already on-site, and many others that we purchased - far enough from the stream bank to stay in place for many years to come.

A steel gate at the upstream end of the area was one flood away from falling into Mogollon Creek, so we moved it back forty feet, and planted dozens of willows and cottonwoods to protect the eroding bank. Once again, Mogollon Box is a lush, lovely place to spend an afternoon.

Beneficiaries

Wildlife Enthusiasts

Brushy Canyon

Program Name

Brushy Canyon

Program Description

n 2011, the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance completed a road closure repair project in Brushy Canyon off the Turkey Creek Road. Back in 2005, the Forest Service had closed this road down Brushy into the Gila River, but the closure was no longer effective.
UGWA received funding from the National Forest Foundation to, once again, protect the river by preventing vehicles from driving down Brushy Canyon into the Gila River, and to build low-tech structures to slow down erosion in the canyon.

Together with the Mogollon Box project, we're protecting an eight mile stretch of the river from vehicles.

Beneficiaries

​Wildlife Enthusiasts

Environmental Stewardship

Program Name

Environmental Stewardship

Program Description

Bed, Bath and Belongings in the Gila River

The Gila River experienced a record flood in 2013, and when the floodwater receded, it left behind deposits of man-made debris from private properties in various stages of disintegration.

UGWA was awarded a grant to clean up the debris from the Secure Rural Schools federal program, which is administered through the Forest Service. We worked with a small crew of strong folks, mostly locals from Gila Hot Springs, to remove the trash. Debris removal was tackled mainly in the summer months when the river was flowing at low levels and the air and water temperature was warm.

Much of the trash was intertwined with organic matter. It was carefully picked apart, piled out of reach of the water, hauled out on horse and mule, and taken to the dump. Items stranded in the river and on the banks included construction materials such as milled lumber, insulation, hardware, metal roofing, propane tanks, furniture, small appliances, mattresses, bathtubs, and household chemicals such as paint, cleaning supplies, and herbicides. Some of these deposits were merely unsightly; other rubbish posed public safety hazards to hikers, backpackers, rafters and swimmers. The construction wreckage in and along the river degrades habitat because resident wildlife could ingest harmful chemicals and injure themselves on sharp objects. Fish habitat is greatly compromised by potentially poisonous chemicals in the debris.
We are grateful for the muscle and effort that has been put into this project to keep our Gila River beautiful.

Beneficiaries

Wildlife Enthusiasts

Gila River

Program Name

Gila River

Program Description

The Gila River rolls on, the last free-flowing river in New Mexico, for now. But it is in danger. In an era when dams in the American West are being dismantled, New Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission and the NM CAP Entity are pushing to divert the Gila.
There is a choice. Instead of building a Gila River diversion and harming the river, we could use the $100 million in Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA) funding to pay for projects that meet a water supply demand in four southwestern New Mexico counties - Grant, Catron, Hidalgo and Luna. The money could pay for municipal and agricultural conservation, watershed restoration, and the Grant County Regional Water Supply project that supplies water to 26,000 residents of Silver City and the Mining District. The funding doesn't have to be used for a Gila River diversion.

Cost estimates for various diversion alternatives range from a few hundred million up to a billion dollars. These astronomical estimates don't take into account the annual operation and maintenance expenses and the price of the water itself (exchange cost), and diversion projects are notorious for going way over budget.

To date, the Interstate Stream Commission has spent about six million dollars of the AWSA funding on consultants to study the feasibility, costs, and benefits of a Gila River diversion. Options include reservoirs, pumps, and pipelines in various sites in the Cliff/Gila Valley.

Six million dollars is a lot of money, and there's precious little to show for it. So far, all diversion options have turned out to be infeasible, too expensive, or both. Independent analysis has shown that, in most years, no water can be legally diverted at all. Yet the NM CAP Entity and the ISC persist in their pursuit of a diversion.

The Gila Conservation Coalition, of which UGWA is a partner (the other two partners are Gila Resources Information Project and Center for Biological Diversity), continues to advocate for common-sense, fiscally responsible non-diversion alternatives. Southwest New Mexico can meet its water demands while the Gila River continues to flow freely, as it has for tens of thousands of years.

The history of large-scale water projects in the American West is a sad tale of massive subsidies benefitting a small number of water users at the expense of taxpayers. A Gila diversion would be a similar boondoggle. It would also likely reduce the amount of the tourist income that contributes to southwest New Mexico's economy, since healthy rivers are such rare amenities. And these are only the economic costs.

What about the costs to our native flora and resident wildlife? Although riparian ecosystems occupy only a very small percentage of our landscape, their ecological importance is enormous. Currently, stretches of the Gila dry up in most years before summer rains begin, as irrigators divert all of the water to flood their fields. Think of the impact on aquatic wildlife if even more water is removed from the river. Our beloved Gila could look like the beleaguered "river" it becomes in Arizona: a dry watercourse choked with invasive tamarisks and criss-crossed with ATV tracks.

Add in the uncertainties of climate change, and it becomes apparent that the best place to store water is in the river and in the ground. The best way to meet our water needs is by conserving water and sustainably using the groundwater resources we have.

Let's leave the Gila's water for the stream itself, and let the Gila River roll on.

​Beneficiaries

​Wildlife Enthusiasts

​Gila National Forest

​Program Name

Gila National Forest

Program Description

The Gila National Forest is revising its 30-year-old Forest Plan guiding resource management. The Upper Gila Watershed Alliance is the local lead in a partnership of conservation nonprofits working to ensure that the revised plan prioritizes restoration and protects the forest and watersheds from climate change impacts.
Planning is a lot of work, and, let's face it, not very exciting. But it's vitally important that conservationists engage in the process of forest plan revisions, because these plans govern how the Gila National Forest will be managed for years to come. Every policy decision and potential project must be compared to the current forest plan to ensure its compatibility.

The Upper Gila Watershed Alliance is engaged in forest plan revisions because we understand the importance of robust protections for streams, watersheds, habitat for wildlife and native plants, and recreational opportunities. In the face of climate change, we recognize that safeguarding our water and public land is more crucial than ever.

If you'd like to know more about forest planning on the Gila National Forest, please visit www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gila

Beneficiaries

Wildlife Enthusiasts

​Bar 6 Canyon

Program Name

Bar 6 Canyon

Program Description

Bar 6 Canyon, a perennial watercourse in the Burro Mountains, off the Red Rock Road in the Gila National Forest, got a makeover in 2013, when UGWA did a stream restoration project to help retain flood flows for a longer time, recharge the groundwater, and restore an important wildlife watering hole.
Our contractors built boulder step pools and other natural-looking structures in the stream and fenced cattle out of the project area. Just a few short years later, the fenced riparian area is already more lush than the surrounding stream bed.

The River Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, created by former governor Bill Richardson, funded this project.

Beneficiaries

Wildlife Enthusiasts

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