14 Department Circular 2W, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

 THE GILA NATIONAL FOREST. 



(In Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, and Sierra Counties.) 



The Gila Xational Forest, administered from headquarters at Sil- 

 ver City, X. Mex., comprises an area of 1,638,053 acres in south- 

 western Xew Mexico and embraces the Mogollon, Black Range, and 

 Pinos Altos Mountains. Xot only does this area contain particularly 

 valuable resources of timber, range, and minerals, but it is very impor- 

 tant as a watershed. Within the Forest are the sources of the Gila 

 and Mimbres Rivers, and a large portion of the San Francisco River 

 watershed. Large areas of productive lands in both Xew Mexico 

 and Arizona are dependent for irrigation water and agricultural 

 prosperity upon the continuous flow of these streams. The moun- 

 tain ranges within the Gila Xational Forest contain numerous liv- 

 ing streams which afford excellent fishing, and, together with the 

 natural scenic beauty of the region and the abundance of game, offer 

 exceptional opportunities to an increasing number of sportsmen and 

 summer visitors. 



A large part of the forest area is covered with exceedingly valu- 

 able stands of timber estimated at 2,150,000,000 board feet of saw 

 timber 'and 875,000 cords of wood. The saw timber is western yellow 

 pine, Douglas fir, and Engelmann spruce, and the cordwood is 

 largely juniper, oak, and pinon. As transportation facilities are 

 inadequate, a considerable part of the timbered area is inaccessible. 

 The total cut during the year ending June 30, 1921, was 2.383,000 

 feet of saw timber, mine props, and other forest products. The For- 

 est supplies the raw material for four active sawmills, but the in- 

 creasing development of the region will make possible a large exten- 

 sion of these lumbering operations without exceeding the sustained 

 producing capacity of the Forest. 



A very limited area of valley lands, confined for the most part to 

 the lower elevations, is chiefly valuable for agriculture, and 122 

 tracts of this land have been listed to settlers under the forest home- 

 stead act. 



Large portions of the Forest, which are extremely rough and moun- 

 tainous, are now accessible only to those traveling on horseback and 

 with pack animals. Much of this country is, therefore, little known 

 except to a few stockmen and hunters. An excellent system of trails, 

 which lead through some of the finest mountain scenery in the South- 

 west, is making a large part of this country more accessible. Persons 

 desiring to go into this section will be able to outfit at Silver City. 

 In 1921 the Xew Mexico State Game Commission established four 

 small game refuges within the Gila Xational Forest, two of which — 

 the Black Canyon and the Animas refuges— are within the Black 



