Gila River Festival charts a new path

The Gila Conservation Coalition presents this year’s Gila River Festival, Sept. 26 – 29, with the theme Protecting New Mexico’s Last Wild River: Charting the Path Ahead. As the year commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Gila Wilderness draws to a close, the Gila River Festival will not only celebrate this important milestone in protecting America's first Wilderness River, but will also look to the Gila’s future, by exploring themes of long-term protection, climate resilience, cultural exchange, and stewardship.

Kicking off the festivities at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26 at WNMU’s Light Hall, 1000 W. College Ave., Silver City, will be a keynote presentation given by Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr., the San Carlos Apache leader who has worked tirelessly to prevent the desecration of Oak Flat, an Apache sacred site in what is now southeastern Arizona, from a mine operated by international mining giant Rio Tinto. The keynote talk will be followed by an energetic concert of Afro-flamenco music by Sidy Samb, presented in collaboration with Western New Mexico University Cultural Affairs at Light Hall Gardens.

Events continue at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 27, at WMNU’s Global Resource Center Auditorium, W. 12^th St., Silver City, where a diverse panel of community leaders, including Guadalupe Cano, Ray Trejo, Michael Darrow, Martha Cooper, Joe Saenz, Corina Castillo and Luke Koenig, will present a panel titled Community Voices: Blueprints for the Future of the Gila, in which they discuss their perspectives on the future of the Gila River and its watershed.

Other presentations will take place on Saturday afternoon Sept. 28 at the Silco Theater, 311 N. Bullard St., Silver City. Michael Robinson starts the afternoon off at 1 p.m. with a talk on jaguar reintroduction. At 2:15 p.m., the Mogollon Concerned Citizens will present efforts to protect the watersheds that flow from the western slope of the Gila Bioregion.  Diné filmmaker Tony Estrada will follow at 3:30 p.m. with the world premiere of his documentary “Untrammeled: MCC’s Pursuit of the Wilderness Ideal.”

The L&J Ranch’s Airstream Mobile Lab will be on hand throughout the Festival at the Seedboat Center for the Arts, 214 W. Yankie St., Silver City, with its Gila River Project that will challenge participants to explore the relationship between place and the life it enables.

In keeping with tradition, the festival will host a series of field trips and tours. Alex Mares, of Diné and Mexican heritage, is an ever-popular interpreter of rock art. Luke Koenig, New Mexico Wild’s Gila Grassroots Organizer, will lead a free, family-friendly Wild and Scenic hike to the Gila River, which richly deserves this protective designation. Geologist Dylan Duvergé will discuss how climate change is expected to impact the magnitude, frequency, and nature of flow along the Gila. As always, the Festival will host birding, wildlife tracking, a native plant hike, tours of local composting and restoration projects, horseback riding and more!

June 2016 - Burn scar in the Gila Wilderness from the 2012 Wildfire

In the closing event of the festival “How to Love the River,” at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29 at the Silver City Museum, 312 W. Broadway St., Silver City, devotees of the Gila River will gather for an informal conversation about what loving a river means, and how to think about the future of the Gila watershed in a time of global crisis. Writers Sharman Apt Russell and Philip Connors will join moderator Mónica Ortiz Uribe in sharing stories, visions, hopes, fears, and dreams of the wild Gila River in the 100th anniversary year of the wilderness that gives birth to it.

Visit www.gilariverfestival.org for the full schedule and registration.