(Press Staff Photo by Geoffrey Plant)
Charmeine Wait, executive director of the Silver City MainStreet Project, looks out over a less-developed portion of Big Ditch Park just south of the Thomas J. Ryan Public Safety Building, near where she envisions a connecting trail to Gough Park and an arch to mark a now nearly invisible entrance to the San Vicente Trail that exists on Hudson Street.
Although it lacks an identified source of funding at the moment, President Joe Biden’s “America the Beautiful” initiative could be just what Grant County needs to take its outdoor recreation economy to the next level, while simultaneously helping address the communitywide effects of climate change.
(Press Staff Photo by Geoffrey Plant)
Heart of the Gila Outdoor Equity Program educator Elysha Montoya, left, and Heart of the Gila Chairperson Patrice Mutchnick, pointing, led about 12 volunteers who came out to pick up trash in Cameron Creek in Santa Clara on Saturday. The event was organized in collaboration with the Santa Clara Action Committee.
Grant Countians picked up a lot of trash this weekend: About 120 volunteers filled approximately 200 trash bags along U.S. 180 from Silver City to Hurley on Saturday, as well as along several creeks, in honor of Earth Day, which was April 22.
The Gila Resources Information Project has been celebrating Earth Day throughout April, and in lieu of its usual big celebration in Gough Park, a few volunteers hosted a single information booth beside the Murray Ryan Visitor Center on Saturday. The booth served as headquarters for a Big Ditch cleanup project, a Continental Divide Trail scavenger hunt and information about migratory cliff swallows
April 16, 2021
(Press Staff Photo by Geoffrey Plant)
A view of Gold Gulch Road, near one of the mineral exploration drilling sites proposed by Tucson-based Bronco Creek Exploration near McKnight Peak, in the Burro Mountains on the Gila National Forest west of White Signal.
A mineral exploration project in the Burro Mountains south of Silver City is unlikely to result in actual mining anytime soon, according to Silver City District Ranger Beth Ihle and representatives of the company that’s proposing to look for copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc underneath the southern part of the Gila National Forest.
“We had a lot of folks who interpreted this exploration project as a mine permit, but that’s not even a twinkle in the company’s eye right now,” Ihle said. “That’s a whole separate proposal.”
Credit NMFO Commentary: Community leaders and nonprofit organizations are applauding New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for signing House Bill 200 into law today. The legislation,which was co-sponsored by Reps. Matthew McQueen and Nathan Small and Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart and Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill, ends the proposed Gila diversion project and fast-tracks the spending of the remaining approximately $80 million in the NM Unit Fund for priority water projects, creating long-term water security and jobs in southwest New Mexico (Catron, Grant, Hidalgo and Luna Counties).
“House Bill 200 is a fiscal responsibility bill. It will create jobs, stimulate the economy, and improve lives,”
March 10, 2021
Most SWNM solons oppose bill to sideline diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on March 10, 2021
(Press Staff Photo by Geoffrey Plant)
Last month, District 38 state Rep. Rebecca Dow and District 39 state Rep. Luis Terrazas, both Republicans representing parts of Grant County, spoke against HB 200, “Water Trust Board Projects and N.M. Unit Fund,” ahead of a House vote on the legislation. The proposal seeks to sideline the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project from its proposed future role as a regional water authority and prohibit more Arizona Water Settlements Act funds from being spent on a Gila River diversion.