Gila Bioregion

The Gila is America's first Wilderness Area.  Adjacent is the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Area.  The bioregion makes up a great portion of southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona. This region has been referred to as the Yellowstone of the Southwest for its size, wildness, and nearly complete natural processes and wildlife populations. Extensive roadless areas, wilderness and old growth, Mexican spotted owl populations, Mexican gray wolves, jaguars, condor reintroduction and endemic trout make the Gila Bioregion very special with the potential to be the jewel of a wild southwest.

WildEarth Guardians is working in the Gila Bioregion to ensure a lasting wild legacy for future generations and secure this area as a premier example of the untrammeled West. To achieve our objectives, we are defending the Gila Bioregion from exploitation such as mining, logging, domestic livestock grazing, dewatering of rivers, and off-highway vehicle abuse. In addition, we are actively working to prevent the second great extinction of the Mexican grey wolf in the wild. With litigation and creative organizing efforts, WildEarth Guardians is a stalwart defender of this animal’s claim to its homelands.

The greatest threat to the area is conflicts with the domestic livestock industry. The Gila Bioregion is home to the Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Area. Under pressure from the livestock industry, wolves have been increasingly scapegoated for problems and, if trends don't change, could become extinct in the wild for the second time. WildEarth Guardians will not allow this.