Enchantment Now Comes in Green as New Mexico Tourism Department Launches the First Statewide Ecotourism Initiative in the Country.
Ecotourism stirs a rebranding effort

The New Mexico Department of Tourism has embarked upon a bold and progressive Ecotourism Initiative, one that offers a huge opportunity for New Mexico in the fastest growing segment in worldwide tourism today.

At the heart of this Initiative is a tourism objective that wholly supports the growth and economic vitality of sustainable ecotourism enterprises throughout the State while maintaining the delicate balance between the modern world and traditional cultural values. As a result, we will be increasing tourism, creating local employment, revitalizing rural communities, and ultimately protecting these areas for future generations. It will also build on the equity and add further dimension to our on-going “Land of Enchantment” positioning

Deputy Secretary Hobson spreads the word in Europe and Japan
With her recent arrival back in the States after a whirlwind tour of the top International Travel Trade Shows it’s official. The New Mexico Tourism Department’s Ecotourism Initiative is rolling! Deputy Secretary Jennifer Hobson was blown away by the receptivity to the program at the shows in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Marrakesh. “New Mexico is primed to be a world-class Ecotourism destination. What is essentially New Mexican is perfectly aligned with what travelers from all over the world are looking for: wild and scenic beauty and rich cultural heritage where hands on experiences can be realized. The launch of this program to overseas media only further confirmed the popularity and desire for America’s first statewide Ecotourism initiative.”
Enchantment Now Comes in Green as New Mexico Tourism Department Launches the First Statewide Ecotourism Initiative in the Country.
Ecotourism stirs a rebranding effort

The New Mexico Department of Tourism has embarked upon a bold and progressive Ecotourism Initiative, one that offers a huge opportunity for New Mexico in the fastest growing segment in worldwide tourism today.

At the heart of this Initiative is a tourism objective that wholly supports the growth and economic vitality of sustainable ecotourism enterprises throughout the State while maintaining the delicate balance between the modern world and traditional cultural values. As a result, we will be increasing tourism, creating local employment, revitalizing rural communities, and ultimately protecting these areas for future generations. It will also build on the equity and add further dimension to our on-going “Land of Enchantment” positioning

Deputy Secretary Hobson spreads the word in Europe and Japan
With her recent arrival back in the States after a whirlwind tour of the top International Travel Trade Shows it’s official. The New Mexico Tourism Department’s Ecotourism Initiative is rolling! Deputy Secretary Jennifer Hobson was blown away by the receptivity to the program at the shows in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Marrakesh. “New Mexico is primed to be a world-class Ecotourism destination. What is essentially New Mexican is perfectly aligned with what travelers from all over the world are looking for: wild and scenic beauty and rich cultural heritage where hands on experiences can be realized. The launch of this program to overseas media only further confirmed the popularity and desire for America’s first statewide Ecotourism initiative.”http://www.newmexico.org/ecotourism/index.php

The Gila Wilderness Area is right near Silver City:

Walking a Dream of Desolation By Keith Mulvihill, NY Times, December 12, 2008

“On Day 2 of a trip in and around the Gila National Forest, I had made my way five miles to this spot outside Glenwood, a speck of a town in a far-flung area of southwestern New Mexico. I was navigating the 300-foot-long namesake section of the Catwalk National Recreation Trail — a metal walkway clinging to towering vertical slabs of rock. In the 1890s, workers using muscle power and ropes ran a pipeline along the wall of this canyon to carry water to a mill that processed gold and silver ore. They moved along on planks above the pipes, calling this their catwalk. In the 1930s, long after the mill went defunct, the Civilian Conservation Corps was assigned the task of salvaging the 18-inch pipe and turning the support structure into a safely walkable recreation attraction. But the catwalk trail barely scratches the surface of the natural beauty and abundance found in this area. Just beyond this canyon, the scruffy, jagged terrain surges skyward. Steep slopes form the flanks of the Mogollon Mountains, a solid wall delineating the western edge of the sprawling Gila Wilderness, which, in 1924, under the guidance of the conservationist Aldo Leopold, became the nation’s first designated wilderness area. As envisioned by Leopold, the term “wilderness” would define “a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two weeks’ pack trip, and devoid of roads, artificial trails, cottages, or other works of man.” Today, the Gila Wilderness and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, which borders just to the east, together contain more than 750,000 acres of unspoiled land, forming the heart of the Gila National Forest — 3.3 million acres of publicly owned forest and range land. The forest, southwest of Albuquerque, straddles a 170-mile stretch of the Continental Divide and teems with wildlife. Flowing through it is the Gila, one of the few undammed rivers in the West.”

Information about the Gila National Forest and the Gila Wilderness can be found at www2.srs.fs.fed.us/r3/gila/. Maps ($9) are available at any of the six ranger district offices listed on the Web site. The Silver City office is at 3005 East Camino del Bosque (575-388-8201). The Catwalk National Recreation Trail is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Parking is $3 a vehicle. The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (575-536-9461) accepts visitors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; $3 a person and $10 a family Gila Hot Springs Campground (575-536-9551; $3 a person for day use and $4 overnight) is on Access Road off Highway 15, about 3.5 miles south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument visitor center.