A win for the state’s last wild river

Kendra Chamberlain

Environmentalists, business owners and sportsmen cheered after a victory in protecting the state’s last free-flowing river. Grant County Commissioners voted to adopt a resolution last week to support protecting portions of the Gila and San Francisco rivers and tributaries under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The coalition proposed protecting 436 miles of the Gila and San Francisco Rivers and their tributaries, which comprise one of the largest undammed watersheds left in the continental U.S., from future development. The county commission vote itself doesn’t have any impact on the rivers’ designations, but Keefe said it does send a strong signal to Washington. “The Grant County resolution is a very big step,” he said. “It signals to our U.S. senators that the local communities really want this to happen.” The coalition says it’s now up to New Mexico’s congressional delegation to introduce legislation to extend wild and scenic protections to the Gila and San Francisco rivers and tributaries. Keefe described Senators Udall and Heinrich as “champions of public land protections” and said he’s hopeful legislation will appear this fall. “Both of our U.S. Senators have expressed interest in protecting the Gila river through a wild and scenic designation,” Keefe said. “We expect there to be some form of legislation introduced, hopefully sooner rather than later.”...MORE