Читать книгу Backpacking Arizona. From Deep Canyons to Sky Islands онлайн

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The Mogollon Rim is split by the mile-deep canyon created by the Blue River, which drains south into the San Francisco River. West of the Blue River canyon the Mogollon Rim culminates at 9355-foot Blue Peak. 8000-foot mountains and plateaus rise along the Mogollon Rim east of the Blue River. Miles of seldom-used trails trace the Blue backcountry. In the 1930s, the Blue was one of the first wilderness areas protected by the U.S. Forest Service under the inspired leadership of Aldo Leopold. In 1964, Congress passed the Wilderness Act, which included most of the Forest Service wilderness areas in the new National Wilderness Preservation System. The Forest Service designated the remaining administratively protected areas as primitive areas to distinguish them from Congressionally protected wilderness. In the years since, Congress has protected all the remaining primitive areas as wilderness areas, except one: the Blue. The administrative protection of the Blue by the U.S. Forest Service can be rescinded at any time. Even the small section of the Blue in New Mexico is protected as wilderness. Wilderness enthusiasts hope the Arizona section of the Blue will be added soon—it certainly deserves wilderness protection.