If any place in this country encapsulates wilderness and the values we associate with Wild and Scenic rivers, it’s the Gila River watershed and its numerous tributaries in southern New Mexico. Aldo Leopold, considered by many to be the father of the Wilderness concept, first proposed that the Gila River be preserved by the Forest Service in 1922. Leopold was intimately familiar with the headwaters of the Gila, a vast maze of canyons that invokes a classic vision of the American Southwest, in his post as supervisor of the Carson National Forest. This proposition led to
