Virtual broadcast of the Gila Wilderness Centennial Speaker Series

In 1924, the U.S. Forest Service accepted a proposal that would forever impact conservation on the American landscape: the designation of the Gila Wilderness as the first federally-recognized Wilderness area in the United States. The rugged headwaters of the Gila River, with more than 750,000 acres of mountains, rivers, forest, and desert, were designated at the recommendation of Aldo Leopold, the father of wildlife ecology and one of the leading conservationists of the 20th century. Today, the Gila is a source of exemplary outdoor recreation, environmental research, connection with the natural world, and a place of complicated relationships between cultures and land.

The history of the Gila is a microcosm of a long-standing debate: what is wilderness? Does Wilderness–big W–even exist in the way that Aldo Leopold imagined? When additional voices are included, namely those of Indigenous cultures that have lived in the region for thousands of years, how is the conversation reframed? These are the questions at the center of the upcoming Gila Centennial speaker series in Silver City, New Mexico. Join us to learn from the diversity of wilderness perspectives and to challenge your own understanding of land and wild spaces.

With one registration, you have access to each program below. Attend one, attend all!

Events below are in Mountain Time. Once you've registered, the Schedule will show the events in your local time zone.

Wilderness: Explorations in Understanding

with Aldo Leopold biographer Curt Meine, Latinx and environmental writer and professor Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and writer and former Gila trout biologist Leeanna Torres

Explorations in Understanding Panel Discussion

with Curt Meine, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Leeanna Torres 

with Gila trail steward Melissa Green, wilderness historian Doug Scott, professor emeritus of environmental studies Doug Hulmes, and retired BLM Wilderness Specialist Chris Barns.

with Melissa Green, Doug Scott, Doug Hulmes, and Chris Barns

with Theresa Pasqual, Executive Vice President of Indigenous Affairs for Crow Canyon Archaeological Center; Michael Darrow, Fort Sill Apache historian; Corey Torivio, Continental Divide Trail Coalition rep and founder of Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps.

The Gila Centennial Speaker Series: Live from Silver City, New Mexico