June 2022 Re-cap

The NM State Game Commission hosted a meeting in Eagle Nest last Friday. The entire meeting was complete mayhem, as is the usual with this Commission. Only 2 Commissioners attended in-person (the other 2 by zoom), the agenda was entirely rearranged at the start of the meeting, Commissioners were unprepared and visibly unknowledgeable regarding NMDGF game regulations, the Vice Chair left the meeting early (leaving the Commission without a quorum and prevented them from approving the FY 2024 Capital Plan - requiring Director Sloane to urge the Commission to schedule a special meeting since the Capital Plan has an approval deadline of July 1st), and motions made during the meeting were done so in an overly technical manner, which I speculate was, to intentionally confuse the other Commissioners as well as the public. There is a term for situations with this sort of prolonged chaos. But it’s a term better left unwritten in professional communication. Click HERE to experience the madness firsthand.

NOTE: The Deer and Elk Rules were not heard. Both are still open for public comment at [email protected] and [email protected]. 

REMOVAL OF SCOPES FROM MUZZLELOADERS
The Dept. did not provide an official update to this proposal however, the Commission did have an informal discussion on the topic. Commissioner Salazar-Henry had previously expressed opposition to the proposal given the high amount of public comment that has been generated over the last few months (both in opposition and in favor of the proposal). Director Sloane specifically asked the Commissioners if they intended to proceed with the proposal considering the Dept. would be forced to significantly reduce licenses across all species if the proposal were to fail (given the very high success rates of modern-day muzzleloaders with scopes).

Commissioner Salazar-Henry responded that she had done some research on the Colorado rule that bans scopes and was interested to learn that CO has never allowed scopes on muzzleloaders. She also learned that CO is considering banning scopes on all rifles due to their ability to allow a hunter to harvest game at very long range. It seems CO too is having trouble properly managing wildlife with such high hunter harvest rates. Commissioner Salazar-Henry directed the Dept. to continue with their proposal to ban scopes on muzzleloaders. Indicating that she agrees it is in the best interest of game management and that she will vote in favor of the ban. 

SUBSEQUENT DISCUSSION EXOTICS RULE
The Dept. provided their subsequent update on the Exotics Rule. This means the window for providing public comment is closing fast. The Dept. will finalize their proposed changes over the next month and then post their final version of the Rule to the Register, where it must remain unchanged for 30 days prior to approval. The Exotics Rule will be officially approved by the Commission at their August meeting. Below are the Dept’s current proposed changes. You can still provide public comment regarding this proposal. Email your comments to [email protected]

BARBARY SHEEP

• Based on significant public feedback, the Department is no longer recommending combining hunt units: 29, 30, 32, 36, 37.
  • New recommendation is to maintain the split units as follows: GMUs 29, 30 and GMUs 32, 36, 37.
• The Department recommends increasing draw licenses by 20% across the board because of a general increase in Barbary sheep population and a significant increase on McGregor. 
• The Department recommends increasing the number of rifle hunts (from 5 to 8) while shortening the hunt length to accommodate more hunts. 
• The Department proposes to include all GMU 34 in the over-the-counter hunt area to address hunter confusion on the current split boundary. 
• The Department recommends opening all GMUs (outside of SE core areas) to OTC license holders. Currently some areas of the state, where desert bighorn sheep are located, are closed to Barbary sheep hunting. 
• The Department has worked with McGregor Range to propose an increase from 40 to 170 draw hunters. This proposal also includes adding a new Female/Immature bag limit. 

ORYX

• Increase off-range licenses by 18%. Harvest success rates for off-range oryx licenses have been increasing suggesting there is more opportunity. 
• The Department has worked with White Sands Missile Range to consider a possible shift in season structures and possible slight increase in some once-in-a-lifetime licenses on-Range. 
• Based on public feedback, the Department and White Sands Missile Range recommend changing the designation of the “Iraq/Afghanistan veteran” hunts to allow “any veteran” to be eligible. 
• Like other species where we have once-in-a-lifetime designations, we propose making youth licenses available “once-in-a-youth”. The youth would qualify to apply for once-in-a-lifetime licenses once they are 18 years or older. 
• *During the meeting Commissioner Salazar-Henry directed the Dept. to create a couple of Oryx hunts that are specifically reserved for older hunters ages 70+. She indicated that she would like to create a hunt with 40 permits on-range and a hunt with 40 permits off-range. These hunts are not currently being proposed by the Dept. but will be built into their final proposal at the Commissioner’s request. This item will be open to public comment for approx. one more month.* 

IBEX

• Decrease licenses across the board to address decrease in ibex population. 
• Change definition of a “female/immature ibex” to be <20 inches (rather than <15 inches), allowing more young males to be available to harvest for F/IM hunters as part of a larger effort to balance the sex ratio. 
• Change hunt length for F/IM hunts to 5 days and the muzzleloader hunt to 7 days. 
• Shift hunt dates. 
• Continue to have a muzzleloader hunt if the proposal to remove scopes from muzzleloaders is adopted. If scopes continue to be allowed on muzzleloaders, the Department recommends eliminating this hunt entirely as current muzzleloader success rates are too high to risk a harvest rate of over 20%.
• Propose making youth licenses available “once-in-a-youth”. The youth would qualify to apply for once-in-a-lifetime licenses once they are 18 years or older.

SUBSEQUENT DISCUSSION OF THE BIGHORN SHEEP RULE
The Dept. provided their subsequent presentation of the Bighorn Sheep Rule. The Dept. continues to propose that licenses be distributed in the draw through the current method of allocation which allows for resident and non-resident opportunity.

The Commission previously extended to the public comment period to allow for more input regarding a request by the NM Wildlife Federation and Commissioner Salazar-Henry to eliminate non-resident draw opportunity. An overwhelming 70% of the public response generated over the past month was in favor of the Dept.’s current allocation process of lumping hunt codes and thus maintaining non-resident opportunity (406 in favor and 187 in opposition).

However, despite the public’s continued insistence that they are in favor of allowing non-residents to draw bighorn sheep permits, Commissioner Salazar-Henry doubled down on her proposal to eliminate non-resident draw tags. She then attempted to persuade her fellow Commissioners of her proposal by capitalizing on the Chair and Vice Chair’s general lack of understanding regarding Dept. policy. She provided a lengthy and confusing explanation of how she felt non-resident hunters would still have opportunity even if the hunt codes are un-lumped. She attempted to paint the NM Bighorn Sheep enhancement tags and all 4 landowner tags as being non-resident. Even though all those permits are in-fact equal opportunity (meaning a resident hunter can purchase a permit as easily as a non-resident). She also attempted to say that both Rocky and Desert raffle permits are non-resident even though raffle tickets are just $20/ticket and can be purchased, and won, by anyone (and the raffle has been won by a NM resident several times). To be completely clear an un-lumping of the Bighorn Sheep hunt codes would eliminate all opportunity for a non-resident to obtain a NM sheep permit through the Big Game Draw.

Commissioner Salazar-Henry nearly succeeded in bamboozling the Commission until Commissioner Archuleta finally had the good sense to ask for further clarification. Commissioner Salazar-Henry’s motion died on a 2/2 vote. Which means that the Dept.’s current allocation process continues to be the proposal on the table and will be voted on at their August meeting. Commissioner Salazar-Henry was noticeably unhappy that her motion failed, and she stated on record that she will be voting against the Bighorn Sheep Rule in August. And because the Commission requires all 4 commissioners vote unanimously to approve a Rule, that would mean there would not be a Bighorn Sheep Rule in 2023. To clarify, and this is extremely important to understand, if the Rule is not approved there would be NO sheep permits issued in 2023, resident or non-resident.

This fight is not over yet. And NMCOG will continue to advocate for non-resident opportunity. If you are interested in watching the fireworks that took place last Friday, you can watch the meeting HERE. The conversation begins at 2:04:20 and is 1-hour 45mins in length.

Other Dept. proposals regarding Bighorn are as follows:

• The Department established a population of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the Jemez mountains in 2014. The population will soon have older age class males available for harvest and the Department recommends opening the Jemez population for hunting over 2 hunt windows. 
  • Aug. 10-24 and Sept. 1-15, likely beginning in the 2024 season. 
• The Hatchet’s hunt currently allows hunters to access both the Little and Big Hatchets. The Department recommends splitting the hunt areas into the Little Hatchets and Big Hatchets hunt area as current ram harvest occurs disproportionately on the Little Hatchets. The Department also recommends shifting hunt dates to 2 hunt windows.
  • September 15-30 and October 1-15. 
• To ensure an enjoyable hunt and limit hunter density, the Department recommends creating 2 hunt windows in the Peloncillo and Ladron populations as outlined below. 
  • Ladron: Dec. 1-15 & Dec. 16-31 
  • Peloncillos: Nov. 1-15 & Nov. 16-30 
• To ensure an enjoyable hunt and limit hunter density, the Department recommends creating a 3rd hunt window in the Rio Grande Gorge population, Nov. 1-15. This will allow for a unique opportunity to hunt Rocky rams during the rut. 
• The Department proposes to include the Double E Wildlife Management Area as open to hunters that hold a valid license for that GMU. 
• The Department recommends making small adjustments to season dates in some areas. For example, if a hunt normally starts on a Saturday, this date shift would be maintained throughout the rule, so the hunts continue to start on Saturday.

FINAL PRONGHORN RULE HEARING
The Dept. provided their final presentation regarding their proposed changes to the Pronghorn Rule. During the Commission discussion Commissioner Lopez made a motion to “make a small amendment”. The motion was amazingly technical and referenced only rule and hunt code numbers with zero explanation of what he was amending. Once again, I assume this was done to capitalize on the Chairwoman and Vice Chairwoman’s lack of understanding of Game & Fish regulation to confuse them into voting for something they don’t quite understand. Ironically Commissioner Lopez seemed to misunderstand his own motion which he said was made “to give hunters more opportunity to harvest antelope”. The motion however reduces hunter opportunity by more than half on public land and almost entirely on private land in GMUs 4, 50, & 52. View NMCOG’s comments regarding this change at 5:26:10.

The Commission voted unanimously to approve Commissioner Lopez’s motion. Even though the proposal had been overwhelmingly opposed by the general hunting public. Additionally, the Dept. attorney, rather shockingly, stated that she felt the change was not substantive enough to warrant further public comment (even though the amendment guts tag number by over 50% and entirely changes the weapon type). But it’s too late now because the Rule has now been officially adopted by the Commission and we are stuck with Commissioner Lopez’s change for the next 4 years. This fiasco just further illustrated the Commission’s serious lack of understanding regarding Dept. of Game & Fish policy and how it’s applied to all aspects of the hunting/fishing industry.

Other approved changes to the Pronghorn Rule are as follows:

• The Department recommends modifying the definition of a muzzle-loader to include only those muzzle-loading firearms that do not have a scope (for all big game species). 
• Shift hunt structure slightly to begin later in August and have some hunts begin in September and October. This recommendation is to address significant public feedback that pronghorn hunts occur too early and ambient temperatures are too hot. 
• Create a pronghorn hunt on Melrose Air Force Range in GMU 32. The Department has been working with Melrose AFR to offer a limited and unique hunting opportunity on Range. 
• Due to low pronghorn numbers in the Northwestern quadrant of the state, the Department recommends decreasing license numbers in the combined hunts in GMUs 2, 7, 9, 10 from 15 bow licenses down to 10 and from 15 any sporting arm licenses down to 5. 
• To avoid having a conflict of the Department flying elk helicopter surveys over pronghorn hunters in GMUs 15 and 16, we recommend the following.
  • GMU 15: eliminate the 2nd any legal sporting arm hunt but reallocate the 5 licenses to the first any legal sporting arm hunt.
  • GMU 16: eliminate the 2nd any legal sporting arm hunt but reallocate the 10 licenses to the remaining hunts (this would increase 2 hunts by 5 licenses each). 
  • Because of limited access to public land in GMU 57, the Department recommends decreasing each hunt by 5 licenses each and moving these licenses to adjacent GMU 58 that has more public access. 
• The Department recommends allowing pronghorn hunting on Prairie Chicken Areas in the SE part of the state. 
• In coordination with McGregor Range, the Department recommends adjusting licenses from 5 MB non-military and 10 MB military to 7 MB of each. 
• The Department does not recommend changing the weapon type of the last pronghorn hunt in GMUs 4/50/52 from muzzleloader to any legal weapon. *However, Commissioner Lopez pushed the Commission to approve this change. The Dept. would not agree to it without reducing tags on both the public and private land (as rifle hunts increase success rates and the population cannot sustain more harvest). Public land hunts were reduced from 40 to 20 per hunt code and private land tags went from OTC unlimited to 15 total landowner tags per GMU.* 

NON-NAVIGABLE WATERS RULE REPEAL
The Dept. opened the Non-navigable Water Rule so that they could officially repeal the rule, as was mandated by NM Supreme Court Order back in March. The process of officially repealing the rule will take place over several Commission meetings and will be open for public comment. You can email your comments to [email protected].

NMCOG has no problem with the repeal of the Rule (that is what the NM Supreme Court mandated and there is no way around that). However, the NMDGF’s overly board interpretation to how the Supreme Court ruling relates to public access is where we have a major problem. The NMDGF printed in their 2022 Fishing Proclamation on page 1 “By means of this court order, all watercourses in the state, that can be legally accessed, are open for public recreational use.” The NMDGF has openly stated that this regulation means their law enforcement officers are being directed to NOT enforce trespass laws if an individual is literally standing in the water on private land. However, NMCOG finds this statement to be completely premature and out of line with the NM Supreme Court ruling which repealed the Rule but DID NOT repeal the statute which specifically outlaws walking and wading on private property to access water.

NMCOG will continue to urge landowners to contact NMDGF law enforcement as well as local law enforcement anytime they find a trespasser on their private property. Whether that person is standing in a privately owned streambed or on dry land. You can watch NMCOG’s comments to the commission regarding this issue during the general public comment segment at 1:05:54 as well as during the discussion of the Rule at 4:47:08. 
​
FINAL JAVELINA RULE HEARING
The Dept. provided their final presentation regarding their proposed changes to the Javelina Rule. The Commission voted unanimously to approve the Rule as presented by the Dept.

Changes to the Rule are as follows:

• The Department will include a population management hunt option in the javelina rule. Hunters would be able to select a 5th choice “population management” option on their application and be included on a list to be called if hunts are developed. 
• The Department will expand the Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) where javelina will be hunted. This includes, but is not limited to, the Double E, River Ranch, and Red Rock properties. These WMAs will be open for hunters that hold a valid license for that GMU. 
• Hunter success rates for javelina have been increasing through time, but success on the statewide hunt has increased at a higher rate. The Department will be increasing the bootheel licenses by 10% and increasing the statewide licenses by 20%. 
• Season dates to be implemented for both the bootheel and the statewide hunts: 
  • Archery: January 1-31 annually
  • Any legal sporting arm: February 1-March 31 annually 
• The demand for javelina licenses appears to be increasing based on applications received, so the Department will remove the ability to hunt javelina during a deer or elk hunt.

Special Meeting - Possibly June 17, 2022 (Santa Fe, NM)
Next Official Commission Meeting – July 22, 2022 (Ruidoso, NM)
​
COMMISSIONER CONTACT INFORMATION
(You're encouraged to contact the Commissioners any time to voice your opinion)

Sharon Salazar Hickey - Chairwoman
District 4: Santa Fe, Taos, Colfax, Union, Mora, Harding, Quay, San Miguel, Guadalupe
and Torrance counties
[email protected]

OPEN
District 5: Bernalillo County

Roberta Salazar-Henry
District 2: Catron, Socorro, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Sierra and Doña Ana counties
[email protected]
Deanna Archuleta
At - Large Position
[email protected] 

Tirzio Lopez
Appointed - Agriculture Position
[email protected]

OPEN
District 3: San Juan, Rio Arriba, McKinley, Sandoval, Cibola, & Valencia counties

OPEN
District 1: Curry, De Baca, Roosevelt, Chaves, Lincoln, Otero, Eddy and Lea counties