The Greater Gila – America’s next, great protected landscape
The Greater Gila
Deep in the heart of the American Southwest lies the Greater Gila Bioregion, a place that is larger and more biodiverse than Yellowstone, as rich in cultural history as Bears Ears, as wild as the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, and the birthplace of the wilderness ideal. WildEarth Guardians believes that the Greater Gila can and should be America’s next, great protected landscape. We envision a protected area of equal or greater size to three million acres, anchored around the Gila, Aldo Leopold, and Blue Range wilderness areas where wolves and jaguars are free to roam, Mexican spotted owls soar, and Gila and Apache trout thrive in free-flowing rivers and streams.
For decades, WildEarth Guardians has advocated for protection and restoration of the Greater Gila Bioregion. We’ve made great strides since shifting our approach to working with ranchers, rather than against them. Our innovative method for retiring grazing allotments has resulted in the protection of more than 36,000 acres of important Mexican wolf habitat on public lands, giving the wildness that remains in the Greater Gila the space to endure.
Guardians is actively pursuing more grazing permit retirements and working to protect the Greater Gila against the threats of logging, roads, and other harmful activities. We aim to protect, restore, and reconnect public and private lands to provide a unique and rich place of wildness, wildlife, and wild rivers.
Greater Gila Priority Work
Mexican Wolves
Grazing Permit Retirement
Recent Stories From Public Lands
Suit Seeks to Restore Protections for Wildlife in Flathead National Forest
New Flathead Forest Plan favors resource extraction over protection and restoration of habitat for grizzly bears, Canada lynx, wolverine, and bull trout
Large Landscape Conservation Just Makes Cents
We envision a large landscape designation in the Greater Gila Bioregion that would set the stage for the ecological and economic benefits of land protections to be, for lack of a better word, capitalized on.
Beckoning the Beavers
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve thought beavers were worthy of my admiration. Sadly, beavers have been eradicated from literally tens of thousands of miles of streams and small rivers—the victims of both trapping and habitat degradation.
Why legislation authorizing permanent retirement of livestock grazing permits matters
Keeping livestock off public lands has many benefits, but existing law doesn’t allow for permanent livestock grazing permit retirement
Public Lands Press
Of Toddlers, Wolves, and Public Lands Ranchers
The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, further bolstered by the Multiple Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, authorized cattlemen and sheep growers to use public land across the West to grow their personal businesses. Now the same law has enabled corporate cattleman to profit from some of America’s most picturesque forests, grasslands, and deserts.
Read more >Board upholds order keeping coal mine out of roadless area
A state board this week upheld an order barring further road-building or other surface-disturbing activities by the West Elk Mine in the Sunset Roadless Area of the Gunnison National Forest in the upper North Fork Valley.
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