SILVER CITY, New Mexico — Thanks to a partnership between the Gila National Forest and the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF), Sacaton Airstrip officially reopened in January 2023.
Located adjacent to Rain Creek Trailhead and just outside of the Gila Wilderness boundary, the Sacaton Airstrip had been abandoned for more than four decades due to changes in management needs and agency funding.
That changed in September 2022 when the RAF and Gila National Forest entered into an agreement to maintain and improve six backcountry airstrips in the Gila National Forest, including restoring Sacaton Airstrip to operational status, according to officials with Gila National Forest.
RAF volunteers help re-establish the backcountry runway and install a new vault toilet.
Applying their aviation expertise, RAF volunteers also assisted in coming up with a set of operational standards and a joint operation, maintenance, and inspection plan for the six Gila airstrips.
This “will help ensure ongoing maintenance needs are recognized and addressed,” forest service officials said in a January 2024 press release.
“The Recreational Aviation Foundation has been a wonderful partner that is helping to improve and maintain backcountry airstrips across the Gila National Forest,” said Gila National Forest Supervisor Camille Howes. “Without their volunteers’ commitment and enthusiasm, Sacaton Airstrip would still be but a memory. This partnership helps secure the future of recreational aviation access on the Gila National Forest.”
The partnership builds on a long-standing relationship centered around airstrip collaboration. In 2010, then-Reserve District Ranger John Pierson enlisted the support of RAF volunteers to make improvements at Negrito Airstrip. Since 2010, volunteers have flown in to Negrito Airstrip for annual work parties. Projects include activities like installing windsocks, clearing rocks from runways, and repair and replacement of fences.
“Our goal is to maintain the Gila airstrips in good condition so that they may be used for fire suppression, emergency medical evacuation, as well as recreational access for pilots,” said RAF New Mexico Liaison Ron Keller. “These types of projects are important to the RAF and the recreational aviation community as a whole because the combination of flying and camping has become so popular in the past decade. We pilots think of a landing strip as a trailhead.”
Not only has RAF stepped forward to be an active on-the-ground partner in the State of New Mexico and with individual agencies, but they are helping to bring attention to the need for Forest Service airstrip maintenance funding at the national level, Gila National Forest officials said.
RAF leadership lobbied the chief of the Forest Service in Washington, D.C., several years ago for funding to support Forest Service backcountry airstrips. Out of $750,000 now distributed annually, forests in the Southwestern Region were allotted $161,731 in 2023, all of which was allocated to the RAF/Gila cost share challenge, officials said.
“The Forest Service recognizes backcountry airstrips as an important part of the administrative and recreational infrastructure on the national forests,” officials said in the press release. “Use of these airstrips for recreational access is a valued and important activity for the aviation community and many visitors, providing a low impact method of access to various remote and isolated recreation sites and areas. Some backcountry airstrips contain important historical and cultural values that are reminders of a bygone era. They also provide potential access for emergency services, firefighting efforts, and other activities of the Forest Service.”
In 2024, RAF volunteers will continue work at Rain Creek Trailhead adjacent to Sacaton Airstrip. When conditions allow, they will pour a concrete pad outside the vault toilet to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as installing several concrete picnic tables and shade structures. They also plan to make some improvements at Jewett Airstrip.
Backcountry airstrips on the Gila National Forest include Beaverhead, Jewett Mesa, Me-Own, Negrito, Rainy Mesa, and Sacaton.
Pilots interested in landing at one of the backcountry airstrips should call Silver City Interagency Fire and Aviation Dispatch Center at 800-538-1644 for permission to land and to learn about airstrip conditions.
For more information: FS.UDA.gov/Gila, TheRAF.org
and a round of applause for the New Mexico Pilots Association without whom this would never have happened!!!
Fantastic! Way to go RAF (and Ron).