Gila National Forest
The Gila National Forest is a United States national forest located in southwestern New Mexico . It is bordered to the west by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest , which is in the neighboring state of Arizona. It covers 13,454 square kilometers, 88% of which are classified as woodland. The year-round water-bearing Gila River flows through parts of the Gila National Forest.
The Mexican wolf , which was already extinct in the wild, was reintroduced in the Gila National Forest and the neighboring national forests of Arizona . In the area are several wildlife protection areas as Wilderness are called. One of them is the 2,260 square kilometer Gila Wilderness. The region is characterized by mountainous terrain, in which the yellow pine dominates as a tree species. Evergreen oaks and junipers can be found especially at the foot of the mountains. Shrub landscapes predominate in the valleys. There are always open grassland areas between the forests and parklands. The larger animals in the area include elk , mule deer , white-tailed deer , bighorn sheep and collar peccaries . Including the neighboring Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, there are 57,000 white-tailed or mule deer and 16,000 elk deer in the area.
Black bears and pumas also occur in the area. Hikers in the Gila Wilderness area are therefore advised to keep food away from their roost so as not to attract these predators.
In the area of the Gila National Forest, the jaguar is said to have been sighted repeatedly in the recent past.
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- ↑ John D. Shaw: Forest Resources of the Gila National Forest . United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Rocky Mountain Research Station, May 2008. PDF
- ^ David R. Parsons: "Green Fire" Returns to the Southwest: Reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf. Source: Wildlife Society Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 4, Commemorative Issue Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of "A Sand County Almanac" and the Legacy of Aldo Leopold (Winter, 1998), pp. 799-807 PDF
- ↑ FOREST SERVICE GILA NATIONAL FOREST US Department of Agriculture: BACKPACKING IN THE GILA WILDERNESS . Wilderness Ranger District PDF
- ↑ Michael J. Robinson: Habitat for Jaguars in New Mexico. (maps by Curtis Bradley and Jeff Boyd) produced in cooperation with the Jaguar Conservation Team's Habitat Subcommittee. January 2006. PDF ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 33 ° 30 ′ 0 ″ N , 108 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ W.