Aldo Leopold Wilderness, along with Gila Wilderness and Blue Range Wilderness, is part of New Mexico's

Gila National Forest The Gila National Forest is a United States national forest in New Mexico. Established in 1905, it now covers approximately , making it the sixth largest national forest in the continental United States. The Forest administration also manage ...

. It became part of the

National Wilderness Preservation System The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) of the United States protects federal government of the United States, federally managed Wilderness, wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally ...

in 1980 by an act of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

and has a total of (316 sq. mi.). The wilderness area lies along the crest of the

Black Range The Black Range (also called the Devil's Mountains or Sierra Diablo) is an igneous mountain range running north–south in Sierra, Grant, and Catron counties in southwest New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Description The range's ...

. The

Continental Divide of the Americas The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Great Divide, the Western Divide or simply the Continental Divide; ) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from t ...

and the

Continental Divide Trail The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (in short Continental Divide Trail, CDT) is a United States National Scenic Trail with a length measured by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition of between the U.S. border with Chihuahua (state), Chi ...

traverse part of the wilderness.

History

The area with the Aldo Leopold Wilderness was formerly part of the Gila Wilderness, the world's first wilderness area, established in 1924. Later, the Gila was reduced in size and this area became the Black Range Primitive Area. In 1980, the Aldo Leopold Wilderness was created, named after

Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, Philosophy, philosopher, Natural history, naturalist, scientist, Ecology, ecologist, forester, Conservation biology, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a profes ...

, a pioneering environmentalist. Gila-Aldo Leopold Wilderness

On September 18, 1879, the

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

war chief

Victorio Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas ...

and his warriors ambushed 100 Buffalo soldiers (African-Americans) of the 9th Cavalry and

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

scouts on the eastern edge of the Black Range and the Wilderness near Las Animas Creek. The Apaches killed about 10 of the Buffalo soldiers and Navajo scouts. The cavalry was able to withdraw after dark, leaving much of its gear to be captured by Apaches. The canyon where the battle took place is called "Massacre Canyon" and a nearby flat area is called Victorio Park.

Topography, flora, and fauna

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness area stretches north-south along the crest of the Black Range for about and has a maximum width of about . The elevation of the crest ranges from at McKnight Mountain, the highest point in the wilderness area. The crest of the range overlooks a series of east-west trending steep and narrow stream valleys, one thousand or more feet deep. The lowest elevation in the wilderness is about . Vegetation in the Aldo Leopold consists of a

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

fir Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

and

quaking aspen ''Populus tremuloides'' is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, one of several species referred to by the common name aspen. It is commonly called quaking aspen,

forest above , a

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

forest between and a pinyon-

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

woodland and desert vegetation below 6,500 feet and on dry southern slopes. Hardwood forests, especially cottonwood, line many of the larger streams. The wilderness area has fauna typical of the American Southwest:

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

elk The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. ...

spotted owl The spotted owl (''Strix occidentalis'') is a species of true owl. It is a resident species of old-growth forests in western North America, where it nests in tree hollows, old bird of prey nests, or rock crevices. Nests can be between high a ...

gray fox The gray fox (''Urocyon cinereoargenteus''), or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. This species and its only congener (biology), congener, the diminutive island fox ...

wild turkey The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an upland game bird native to North America, one of two extant species of Turkey (bird), turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey (''M. g. dom ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

peccary Peccaries (also javelinas or skunk pigs) are pig-like ungulates of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North America. Peccari ...

, black bear and

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

. Of note is the effort to reintroduce the

Mexican wolf The Mexican wolf (''Canis lupus baileyi''), also known as the ''lobo mexicano'' (or, simply, ''lobo'') is a subspecies of gray wolf (''C. lupus'') native to eastern and southeastern Arizona and western and southern New Mexico (in the United Sta ...

to the region. The native Gila trout has been brought back from the verge of extinction and now exists in small populations in Diamond Creek, South Diamond Creek and Black Canyon on the west side of the Black Range. A population of Rio Grande cutthroat trout survives in Holden Prong of Las Animas Creek on the east side of the Black Range. The

Mimbres River The Mimbres is a river in southwestern New Mexico. Course The Mimbres forms from snowpack and runoff on the southwestern slopes of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the Black Range at in Grant County. The river ends in the Guzmán Basin, a s ...

has its headwaters in the Wilderness. Due to the prevalence of forest fires, brushy areas, grassland, and recently burned forests are also common. In 2013, the Silver Fire destroyed or damaged more than of forest, most of it in the Wilderness, especially at higher elevations.

Recreation

Aldo Leopold is rugged and remote and is often considered New Mexico's "wildest wilderness," probably seeing fewer human visitors in 2011 than it did 100 years ago. Hiking and backpacking are the major recreational activities, but scarcity of water inhibits many potential visitors. Most streams and springs are seasonal and unreliable. More than 200 miles of trails crisscross the wilderness, including about 30 miles of the

. Most trails are faint and little used and navigation can be a problem. Scenery and solitude are the main attractions of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness. Hunting is permitted. The best known and most accessible trail into the wilderness leads from Highway 152 at Emory Pass and goes five miles north to Hillsboro Peak which reaches an elevation of . This trail continues to follow the entire north-south length of the mountains along the central ridge, a distance of from Emory Pass to Caledonia trail head on New Mexico 226. There are also a number of campgrounds, some with hiking trails, along NM 152 as it goes through Iron Canyon on the west side of the Black Range.Cunningham and Burke, pp. 86, 250 The Aldo Leopold is separated from the larger Gila Wilderness Area only by a gravel road and a narrow corridor of private property.

References

External links

Aldo Leopold Wilderness
- Wilderness.net
Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research InstituteRecreation - Wilderness
- Gila National Forest
Flora of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness & Gila National Forest
{{Authority control Protected areas of Catron County, New Mexico Protected areas of Grant County, New Mexico Great Divide of North America IUCN Category Ib Protected areas of Sierra County, New Mexico Wilderness areas of New Mexico Gila National Forest Protected areas established in 1980 1980 establishments in New Mexico

History

Topography, flora, and fauna

Recreation

See also

References

External links