In response to the imminent threats of development in our nation's last remaining pristine roadless forests, Forest Guardians has launched our Clean Water & Wild Forests campaign.

Forest Guardians' Innovative Solution

Rather than accepting the hollow framework of the Bush administration as the only legal and political process for protecting roadless lands, Forest Guardians has undertaken an alternative strategy to permanently protect them-our Clean Water & Wild Forests campaign. This strategy relies not on forests protection statutes, but instead on the federal Clean Water Act (CWA).

The Clean Water Act and an individual state's administrative code explicitly allow for the public to petition to modify a state's water quality standards at any time. Forest Guardians is using this citizen process to petition the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission to designate each waterway within all inventoried roadless areas and their wilderness headwaters in the state of New Mexcio as "Outstanding National Resource Waters" (ONRW). After New Mexico, Forest Guardians will use the same petition process to protect the waters and forests in Colorado and Arizona

This provision asserts, in part, that "where waters of exceptional recreational or ecological significance [exist], that water quality shall be maintained and protected." Once designated as Outstanding National Resource Waters, regulations explicitly prohibit all pollution to the waterway that would cause any additional degradation. Therefore, logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, and road building that would pollute these waters are prohibited. Hence, the wild forests in which these clean waters are found are protected. Despite the Bush administration's determination to sell off our public lands to private industry, Forest Guardians has found a creative and innovative way to preserve our natural heritage.

Citizen Testimonials

A vital piece of Forest Guardians' Clean Water & Wild Forests campaign is citizen participation. Along with petitions and maps, citizen testimonials like the following will be submitted as the clean waters in wild forests are nominated for permanent protections.

Testimony of Jeremy Rohrlich
Testimony of Luis S. Torres

The First Nomination: The Pecos River Headwaters

The first nomination for Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW) that Forest Guardians has submitted to the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission is for the Pecos River Headwaters. The upper watershed, its inventoried roadless areas, the Pecos Wilderness Area, and all waters are being nominated by Forest Guardians and our partners for permanent protection under the Clean Water Act. This conservation initiative is especially critical because these watersheds serve as the principle supply of high quality, abundant drinking water for significant human populations immediately downstream. View map of Pecos headwaters..