Navigable Learning is our on-the-river education program. Heart of the Gila is committed to providing on-the-water, opportunities for public land employees, politicians and community leaders, whose decisions affect the long-term health and conservation of the river. To that end, we have designed and built low-flow, highly stable catarafts that can navigate the Gila River during normal low-flow times of the year. This effort greatly increases the accessibility of the Gila River wilderness. We believe those who experience the grandeur and beauty of the Gila will be life-long advocates for her protection.
Children’s Water Festival
Heart of the Gila co-sponsored this early educational gathering in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Ella, Ella and Michael taught ecology at the Gila River Farm to elementary children during the 2014 Children’s Water Festival. They served as role models for 5th graders throughout their community by visiting classrooms, teaching about watersheds and providing field experiences for 100’s of children. Your donations will help keep this opportunity available for hundreds more children from New Mexico in the years to come, creating a generation of children, who, like Ella, Ella, and Michael, love, understand, and want to protect the environment.
Threatened & Endangered Species Education
We provide Monarch Butterfly Education for local schools and communities and coordinate a citizen science Monarch Monitoring effort. Heart of the Gila is also partnering with a local arts organization to bring a mural of the Mexican Wolf to Silver City.