As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gila Wilderness in 2024, 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, we will envision together the Gila River’s next hundred years and beyond.
This year’s festival kicks off on Thursday September 26 with a keynote presentation 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 proposed mine operated by international mining giant Rio Tinto.
Friday night join us for Community Voices: Blueprints for the Future of the Gila River in which a diverse panel of leaders, including Guadalupe Cano, Ray Trejo, Michael Darrow, Martha Cooper, Joe Saenz, Corina Castillo, and Luke Koenig, will discuss their perspectives on the future of the Gila River and its watershed.
The L&J Ranch’s Airstream Mobile Lab will be on hand at the Seedboat Center for the Arts throughout the Festival with its Gila River Project that will challenge participants to explore the relationship between place and the life it enables.
We’ve got a full line-up of presentations, film, music, and a special celebration of Apache dance and song.
Authors Phil Connors and Sharman Apt Russell and journalist Mónica Ortiz Uribe will close the festival with an informal conversation, How to Love the River, in which they will share their stories, visions, hopes, fears, and dreams of the wild Gila River in the 100th anniversary year of the wilderness that gives birth to it.
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 hike to the Gila River. Geologist Dylan Duvergé will take participants to Mogollon Box to discuss weather and climate impacts on the Gila River. As always, the Festival will host birding, wildlife tracking, native plant hikes, horseback riding, restoration and composting tours, and more.
Check out the full schedule at www.gilariverfestival.org and register for your field trip or tour HERE.
Thank you to our sponsors to date who make this year’s festival possible! Major sponsors to date include Center for Biological Diversity, Gila Resources Information Project, New Mexico Wild, Silver City Daily Press, The Nature Conservancy, The Semilla Project, The Wilderness Society, and Upper Gila Watershed Alliance.
See you in September!
