First and Wildest: The Gila Wilderness at 100

by Elizabeth Hightower Allen (Editor)

Overview

"The Gila Wilderness is both a landmark in conservation history and a living, evolving place. First and Wildest is an elegant, impassioned, and timely tribute to its remarkable past and present.” —MICHELLE NIJHUIS

In the summer of 1922, Aldo Leopold traveled on horseback up into the headwaters of New Mexico's Gila River and proposed to his bosses at the Forest Service that 500,000 acres of that rough country be set aside as roadless wilderness. Thus was born America's first—the world's first—designated wilderness. A century later, writer–activists, including Indigenous voices, come together to celebrate this vast, rugged landscape, the Yellowstone of the Southwest. Contributors include Michael P. Berman, Philip Connors, Martha Schumann Cooper, Beto O'Rourke, Martin Heinrich, Pam Houston, Priyanka Kumar, Laura Paskus, Sharman Apt Russell, Jakob Sedig, Leeanna T. Torres, and JJ Amaworo Wilson.

ELIZABETH HIGHTOWER ALLEN is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, where she spent twenty–plus years editing award–winning features and writing columns and book reviews. A transplanted southerner turned westerner, she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she edits books and articles about public lands, memoir, and adventure, and serves on the advisory board to Writers on the Range. She and her husband and daughter spend as much time as they can exploring the rivers and mountains of the West—while also making it back to Tennessee fairly frequently for ham biscuits. Her mind is blown by the rugged vastness of the Gila.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948814560
Publisher:	Torrey House Press
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	989,836
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Elizabeth Hightower Allen is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, where she spent twenty–plus years editing award–winning features and writing columns and book reviews. A transplanted southerner turned westerner, she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she edits books and articles about public lands, memoir, and adventure, and serves on the advisory board to Writers on the Range. She and her husband and daughter spend as much time as they can exploring the rivers and mountains of the West—while also making it back to Tennessee fairly frequently for ham biscuits. Her mind is blown by the rugged vastness of the Gila.

Table of Contents

Foreword Tom Udall i

Introduction Elizabeth Hightower Allen vii

Invocation: Eve West Bessier 1

Ode to the Gila

Bedrock

Voices: Deb Haaland

Aldo Leopold 7

The Wilderness and Its Place in Forest Recreational Policy

"The truth is that which prevails in the long run."

Joe Saenz 13

As told to Alastair Lee Bitsóí

NDE Benah

"This is Apache Land."

Jakob W. Sedig 21

Lessons in Resilience

"We need to learn from the people who lived here hundreds and thousands of years ago."

Priscilla Solis Ybarra 29

The Idea of Wilderness to Mexican Americans

"The history of American conservation is not as white as we think it is."

Heat

Voices: Charles Bowden

Philip Connors 39

Birthday for the Next Forest

"I wondered whether the fire would deform my connection to the country. Instead, I found I loved it more than ever."

Sharman Apt Russell 49

A Stone in Our Pocket

"Wild landscapes seen and unseen. Wild landscapes, carried home, put in a salad."

Renata Golden 55

Fire Bird

"I asked myself how much change I am able to accept, and how much choice I will have."

Michael P. Berman 63

Learning to Fall

"You will feel the world change when you leave a marked trail."

Flow

Voices: M. H. Dutch Salmon

Laura Paskus 75

Wild Love

"Many have come to love the river-perhaps because we almost lost it."

Beto O'Rourke 83

The Springs

"The Gila is less curated, wilder and more raw-and, for me, it's heaven on earth."

Priyanka Kumar 91

Jade Mother

"Freedom and wildness are braided together, inseparable-they make each other whole."

Leeanna T. Torres 99

Goyahkla

"I am a contradiction, a Chicana biologist, one who claims to love the land yet is here killing fish."

Howl

Voices: Joy Harjo

Martin Heinrich 109

Still Burning Bright

"Deep in the Gila Wilderness, I would set a new course for my life."

Karl Malcolm 115

Gila Elemental

"The purity of my exhaustion was paired with an equal dose of appreciation-for wild animals, this place, a dedicated friend."

Pam Houston 123

On (Not) Wanting to See a Wolf

"Had I thought of it, I might have thrown back my head and howled."

Seeds

Voices: Ella Jaz Kirk

Gabe Vasquez 135

El Oso

"For these youths, whose upbringing was filled with conflict and trauma, unlocking the secrets of the Gila was more than just a trip to the forest."

Martha Schumann Cooper 141

The Land Loves Us Back

"I thought of the stories we share of being broken and healed; of fire scars, flood debris, the forces that keep our forests and rivers whole."

JJ Amaworo Wilson 149

Rambling

"Does the bear make metaphors of the river? Does the mountain lion stop to admire the mountain? I'm the intruder here."

Benediction: Eve West Bessier 155

Gibbous Moons

Contributors 159

Acknowledgments 169

Stand Up for the Gila: List of Organizations 173

Editorial Reviews

"Amid brilliant and gorgeous nature writing, the collection aims to broaden traditional views of wilderness management—'to reimagine a land ethic that is inclusive, whole, and wild.' This anthology is a great addition to the literature of the American Southwest, natural history, and environmental conservation. It melds lush nature writing with thought-provoking calls for alternative environmental policies for the Gila and other national wilderness treasures."

—FOREWORD REVIEWS

"Lyrical…[these] stories sing like a chorus on a host of issues, including the notion of who can own a wilderness."

—NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE

"Engaging and purposeful…a multi-voiced call for a reinvigorated and reimagined wilderness ethic in an era of social and biological crises."

—WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS

"The Gila Wilderness is both a landmark in conservation history and a living, evolving place. First and Wildest is an elegant, impassioned, and timely tribute to its remarkable past and present."
—MICHELLE NIJHUIS, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction

"Thorough, profound, multifaceted. Whether you call this place the Pueblo ancestral home or the Apache's Northern Stronghold or the Mexicans' stolen territory or the Anglos' wilderness, it's a range and a river that gives humans eternal gifts. Explore it here—then protect it forever."
—MARK SUNDEEN, author of The Unsettlers

"The Gila Wilderness occupies a seminal place in the history of conservation and the philosophy of land use. And now, as this awesome kingdom of rugged real estate approaches one hundred years of age as a preserve, here is an eloquent, lyrical, and exceedingly well–timed paean—a chorus of diverse voices, united in their love for this important and sometimes overlooked gem of the American Southwest."
—HAMPTON SIDES, New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder

"A century ago, the prehistoric beauty and rugged diversity of the Gila region of southwest New Mexico inspired a US Forest Service ranger to propose the creation of the Gila Wilderness, the first such designation in the United States. That ranger was the great naturalist Aldo Leopold, and as this engaging collection of writing shows, he was not alone among people stretching from ten thousand years ago till today to be deeply moved by the Gila’s specialness or deeply alarmed by its fragility."
—ROBERT WILSON, editor, The American Scholar

"The Gila—and this great coterie of writers—tells us to know the earth, first know its wildness, a wildness that serves as the only path to our own true heart. Here, indeed, in the Gila Wilderness is the planet’s essence."

—BOB SHACOCHIS, author of Kingdoms in the Air and The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

"What a timely gift. Each essay, poem, and article contains lessons from those who know the Gila best, including the voices of many who have been excluded from dominant conservation conversations for far too long. First & Wildest: The Gila Wilderness at 100 is a resource for every backpack, bookshelf, and bedside table."

—CAITLIN GRANN, Garcia Street Books

From the Publisher