The Columbine Hondo Wilderness Study Area (WSA) is a 46,000-acre wild mountain basin, located in the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in Taos County. The Columbine Hondo is a treasured public wild land and valuable natural resource for local residents, ranchers, sportsmen, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy the area for its outstanding natural beauty and opportunities for a wilderness experience.
The Columbine Hondo WSA contains the headwaters of the Rio Hondo and Red River, both major tributaries of the upper Rio Grande in northern Mexico. The pristine creeks and streams of the Columbine Hondo provide surface water for the downstream agricultural communities of Valdez, Arroyo Hondo, Arroyo Seco, San Cristobal, and Questa.
The lush forests and alpine meadows of the Columbine Hondo are home to abundant Rocky Mountain wildlife, such as mule deer, elk, black bear, and mountain lion. Above treeline, New Mexico’s prized herd of bighorn sheep, along with marmots and pica, can be seen in a fragile alpine tundra habitat.
Set aside by Congress in 1980 to be protected for its unique wilderness values and character, the Columbine Hondo is currently managed as Wilderness, by the Carson National Forest. It has been more than thirty years, and the time has come to ensure its permanent protection, by designating the area as wilderness.
There is currently legislation before Congress that seeks to remove protections from hundreds of Wilderness Study Areas across the country. If the Columbine Hondo WSA is not elevated to wilderness designation soon, similar legislation could remove existing wilderness protections, and open this magnificent wilderness area to motorized/mechanized use, energy/mineral development, timber sales, and other forms of development.
Please help to permanently protect the Columbine Hondo Wilderness, for future generations of New Mexicans. Call, write, or email [1] our elected officials and urge them to support wilderness legislation that would permanently protect the entire 46,000-acre WSA, as a designated wilderness area [2].