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Profiles of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation
Championing the Average Sportsman
Albuquerque Optometrist & NRA Board Member Takes Action for Valle Vidal and Hunter Access
Raising a son, Tom Arvas learned something crucial to getting new people—particularly youth—interested in
the outdoors: you’ve got to produce results.
“When you’ve been hunting as long as I have,” says Arvas, “you get just as much enjoyment from being out
there—whether or not you see any game. But I realized very quickly as a father the importance of producing a
quality outdoor experience when introducing kids to the outdoors. With a teenager in particular you are competing with
their interest for so many other things. It’s that first, second or third time in particular that you’ve got to keep
their interest, or they’re gone.”
Arvas is an Albuquerque optometrist with a love for hunting and a desire to pass quality outdoor opportunities on to
the next generation. Currently he volunteers his time as chairman of the Hunting & Conservation Committee for the
National Rifle Association, Chairman of the NRA’s shotgun committee, President of the Amateur Trapshooters Association,
and Vice-Chairman of the New Mexico State Game Commission.
Arvas has taken on with passion his task as Hunting & Conservation Chairman of the NRA to devise actions that will help
to reverse the decline of hunter numbers. He has overseen the launch of a new Hunt Club in the NRA and has helped to
make increasing the amount of lands open to public recreation an NRA priority.
In the past year, Arvas has spearheaded the launch of a new Walk-In Access Program for New Mexico, in which the New
Mexico Department of Game and Fish will begin to lease hunting & fishing opportunities on private lands from willing
landowners for the enjoyment of the public. Such programs have proven highly popular with both landowners and sportsmen
in western states such as Kansas, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and 12 other states. To Arvas, this program—which
is designed to increase the quality of hunting opportunities available to people of average means—is critical to the
future of hunting.
“The backbone of hunting in America is not the elite trophy hunter who buys expensive landowner permits in pursuit of
that 350 bull or 190 deer,” says Arvas. “The backbone of hunting in America is the guy who works in a gas station, who is
lucky to get out a few times a year, and who can’t afford the exorbitant costs to buy a landowner license.”
Although there are plenty of public lands in New Mexico for the person of average means to go hunting on, Arvas beleives
that the Walk-In Access Program is critical in that it will help produce more quality hunting opportunities for average
folks. “I’ve been an all-season hunter in New Mexico since 1948,” says Arvas, “and I’ll tell you there just aren’t enough
good places for the average person to hunt—and I emphasize good. Because there are lots of places to hunt, but we
do need more quality opportunities for the average John Doe hunter.”
Recalling one of his own first hunting experiences, the “results” to hold his interest were certainly
there—both in terms of harvesting a deer and of having an adventure. Arvas was born in Chicago in 1948 and
his family moved to Albuquerque when he was nine years old. At ten, Arvas went on his first New Mexico deer hunt, and
on this first hunt he got lost—but has never been lost again since. “My dad shot a deer, and in those days we
used to carry a playground ladder with wheels hooked up to it to carry the deer out—but we’d left that at
camp. So my dad told me and the gentleman we were hunting with to go over the hill to camp and get the ladder so we
could pack out the deer. Well, we went over the wrong hill, and almost all the way to the next town. We spent the
night in a sheepherders camp and the local Game Warden found us the next morning.”
In addition to spearheading the launch of a new access program, Arvas has seen to it that youth hunting opportunities
are improved in the Valle Vidal, and has also taken a strong stand in favor of preserving the original intent of the
Valle Vidal to be managed for wildlife, hunting & fishing opportunities—instead of being turned into an industrial
zone for coal-bed methane drilling.
Arvas has made use of the Valle Vidal himself, harvesting a mountain lion there about 15 years ago and having visited
the area numerous times.
“It’s hard to truly appreciate the Valle Vidal if you haven’t been on it,” says Arvas. “Sure we need oil & gas—but
how many places are there like the Valle Vidal that the public has access to? Of all the places with oil & gas, why
pick 100,000 acres of the most pristine land we’ve got for drilling? I am solidly behind doing everything I can to
discourage any drilling.”
Update: Since this biography was written, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, NRA and other sportsmen groups
(and thousands of average sportsmen) were successful in passing legislation to permanently protect the Valle Vidal for
its wildlife, hunting and fishing. To get involved,
join our Sportsmen's E-Mail Action Alert.
Return to top.
Valle Vidal Champion: Jerry Duran
Custom Knifemaker Wins Valle Vidal Benefit Hunt
Jerry Duran went on his first elk hunt in 1961 when he was a young teenager. He was the only one to harvest an elk on
that trip, and a homemade knife his uncle used to field dress and quarter the elk put a seed in his brain that he
thought about for many years. Today his custom knives have been featured in Blade magazine and other publications and
people from around the world contact him to purchase his handcrafted knives—but it was his uncle’s knife, crudely
fashioned from a hacksaw blade that first got him interested. The old knife worked fairly well, Jerry recalled, because
the teeth were still on the back of the blade and useful for cutting through bone.
When Jerry arrived for his elk hunt at Spanish Trails Land and Livestock property near Cimarron in mid-December, Jerry
presented his guide with one of his custom knives. Jerry also gave a custom knife to Alan Lackey, an avid hunter and
owner of United Chevrolet and Toyota in Raton. Lackey donated the cow elk hunt to the New Mexico Wildlife Federation
to help raise awareness and funding to protect the Valle Vidal—a place very dear to Alan. The Wildlife Federation
raised over $4,000 from generous hunters and informed 10,000 New Mexico elk hunters with the help of Alan’s donation.
The money raise will be used to inform more sportsmen and get them involved in protecting the Valle Vidal.
Both Alan and Jerry’s guide were able to test their new knives very soon.
The Spanish Trials Land and Livestock property is in the heart of elk country, adjacent to the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch
and the Vermejo Park Ranch. Jerry had never visited the ranch before and was surprised at the open country. “I expected
to be hunting in the forest,” Jerry said, “but here we are driving out in the sticks, with nothing but cholla cactus
and these guys are telling me its full of elk and I’m thinking, ‘Yeah right.’”
However, on the day of the hunt, after a brief period of seeing no elk he says the elk just “sprang up like mushrooms
all over the place, much to my surprise.” They spotted a herd of 100 elk, but before they could stalk up on those
elk, the party ran into another herd. Jerry harvested his cow elk with a 30-06 that he traded some of his knives for
at a show 25 years ago. Jerry’s son-in-law, who accompanied him on the hunt, knows the Valle Vidal well, and it is
very important in Jerry’s mind to protect the Valle Vidal for future generations to enjoy.
Jerry’s knives have been on display at the Bob Gerding Outdoor Show, and he can be contacted
at jtdknives@hotmail.com or 505-873-4676. He lives works out of a shop in
the South Valley, south of Albuquerque.
Return to top.
Gun Shop Owner & Valle Vidal Champion
Tina Buchen, Owner of Tina’s Range Gear, Santa Fe
When Tina Buchen found out that the El Paso Corporation of Texas is lobbying the Federal Government to open New Mexico’s
Yellowstone—the Valle Vidal—to a spiderweb of coal-bed methane development, she got to work gathering
handwritten letters from friends and customers at her own gun and sporting goods shop, Tina’s Range Gear.
“I think the Valle Vidal is the most beautiful place on earth,” said Buchen. “When I die, I want my ashes scattered up
there—but not on a drilling rig.”
Tina first visited the Valle Vidal about ten years ago on a camping and fishing trip. She says it is “fantastic” how the
Valle Vidal is currently managed—just the right amount of accessibility, without too many roads or ORV trails.
Currently wildlife, hunting, fishing, and other recreation are the top management priorities in the Valle Vidal—but
coal-bed methane drilling, if allowed, would virtually eliminate the winter range for the Valle Vidal’s 2,500 elk.
Buchen believes the handwritten letters from hunters and other visitors to her gun store will help convince President Bush,
Senators Domenici, Bingaman and others that the Valle Vidal is most valuable left just as it is—for use by people and
wildlife. The methane produced from drilling in the Valle Vidal would be consumed by the nation in just 11 hours, and
would have no noticeable effect on consumer gas prices. But the Valle Vidal would become an industrial zone with a vastly
diminished elk herd. Studies by the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish have found that elk will abandon 97 acres of
winter range for every acre of drilling activity.
Tina Buchen was born and raised in Los Alamos, a great place to grow up she says, and probably the reason that she loves
the outdoors so much.
She started hunting about 12 years ago, and started out archery hunting. Shortly afterwards she began working in the
archery department of the sporting goods store she now owns. Although she never dreamed of owning a gun store, she clearly
loves what she does—as one trip to her shop will prove out. Go to Tina’s Range Gear and you’ll likely find Tina
joking with customers and having a good time.
“People tell me, ‘Wow it must be great to have achieved your lifelong dream of owning a gun store.’ And I tell them, I
never dreamed of owning a gun store,” Tina joked. “My dream was to be a pampered spouse.”
Her best hunt was the time she took an "11-point" bull elk with her bow. “I did everything wrong,” Tina recalled. The bull
came in close and she drew, but was shaking so hard from buck fever that the elk ran away. Incredibly, the elk turned
around and came back to the meadow she was in, giving her another chance for a shot. She placed the arrow well, and harvested
what she likes to refer to as a huge "11-pointer." “Some people call it a spike,” Tina clarified. “But I prefer to call it
an 11-pointer.”
As you may have gathered from this brief profile, the joking and energy rolls fast at Tina’s Range Gear—as does a
passion for the outdoors.
You can visit Tina’s Range Gear on the south side of Airport Road, just west of Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe. The store sells
new and used guns, ammunition and archery gear.
Update: Since this biography was written, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, NRA and other sportsmen groups
(and thousands of average sportsmen) were successful in passing legislation to permanently protect the Valle Vidal for
its wildlife, hunting and fishing. To get involved,
join our Sportsmen's E-Mail Action Alert.
Return to top.
Over Three Decades of Service Working for Youth and Enjoying Nature
Longtime Member Joe Albert
Like many a Midwestern youngster, Joe Albert began a lifelong love of wildlife and the outdoors by hunting rabbits and
pheasants as a kid on farmlands near where he grew up in Ohio. Not many Ohio kids though, would one day find themselves
hunting pheasants at the base of Mount Fuji in the prized gamebird’s native habitat in the far east. “That’s the best
pheasant hunting I’ve ever seen,” Albert recalled.
That was just a few years after the end of World War II, when Albert had enrolled in the army and was stationed for a
time in Japan. Local Japanese people had hunted pheasants before the war, but during the American occupation of the
country, no Japanese people were allowed to have guns. However Albert and a friend found a local resident willing to
guide them to good hunting. “We hunted near the rice fields, and it was just packed with pheasants,” said Albert.
Albert spent 20 years in the Army and was transferred to White Sands Missile Range in 1962. Not long after arriving at
White Sands, Albert and some other soldiers were given the assignment of scouting for a possible location to put
foreign troops and they explored Otero Mesa. “It was a long dusty drive to get out there,” said Albert, “but we saw
deer feeding in the area and quail and antelope. It was just beautiful.”
Albert first became involved in the New Mexico Wildlife Federation in the early 1970's, and he saw the state’s
sportsmen beginning in the mid-1970's start to splinter off from a united, powerful force to a myriad of different
clubs and causes focused on just one activity or species—but not necessarily working together on the bigger
picture. Albert is encouraged to see the Federation begin recently to climb again in membership.
“My dream for the Wildlife Federation, I’d like to see all these different sportsmen’s organizations working together
to improve the hunting and fishing opportunities and protect the rights of sportsmen,” said Albert. “I also want to
see the New Mexico Wildlife Federation continue to support the Department of Game and Fish. And I’d like to see them
work more closely with the government land management agencies like the Forest Service, BLM and state land office.”
Over the years Albert has twice been vice president of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and has been active in the
Dona Anna County Associated Sportsmen since the early 1970's, shortly after he moved to Las Cruces. Albert is
currently president of the Dona Anna County Associated Sportsmen and represents them on the New Mexico Wildlife
Federation Board of Directors.
Albert worked as a volunteer hunter safety instructor since the program’s inception in Las Cruces in 1973 until 1998.
He spent twelve years on the Operation Game Thief task force, including time as committee chair of OGT. Albert also
served two terms on the Habitat Stamp Program.
Albert received the Distinguished Service Award in 1978 from Ducks Unlimited, in 1985 the New Mexico Wild Turkey
Federation awarded him the Merriam Medal Award, and in 1986 Albert received the last Wildlife and Conservation Award
ever given out by KOB Channel 4 Television. The National Wild Turkey Federation recognized Albert in 1987 with the
Roger M. Latham Sportsmen’s Service Award. From the Dona Anna County Associated Sportsmen, Albert was recognized with
the Conservationist of the Year Award in 1979, 1980, and 1988—as well as the Outstanding Member Award in 1986
and 2001. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in 2001 awarded Albert its Wildlife Conservation Volunteer Service
Award. And that’s just a sampling of the recognition Albert has received since he began volunteering his time for
wildlife and outdoor opportunities.
A top priority that Albert still pushes for is increasing opportunities for youth to get into hunting and fishing. He
was one of the early advocates for Youth Hunting Programs through the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Even
today, he’s still donating what he can to the Youth Hunting and Fishing Club in Las Cruces. “Anytime there’s youngsters
involved, I’m all for it,” Albert says.
As far as great hunts or trophy animals, Albert is not one to brag. “There’s a saying,” said Albert, “that the man
who goes out in the field to admire Mother Nature and so forth doesn’t bring home much wildlife—and that’s sort
of the way I am. I just love to go out in the woods and walk and look.”
“I’ve enjoyed every hunt I’ve ever been on,” Albert continued. “Even if I get skunked—I just like being out there.”
Return to top.
A Champion for the Valle Vidal
Alan Lackey
If there were an award for the person who loves the Valle Vidal most—the pool of contestants would be
huge—but it would tough to find someone with a stronger commitment than Alan Lackey.
Alan has roots in the Raton area going back four generations. As a young man he worked as a cowboy on the Baca Ranch,
which at that time contained the Valle Vidal. When the Valle Vidal was donated to the American people in 1982 for a
wildlife area, Lackey began spending most of his spare time there—guiding hunting or packing trips, fishing or
riding.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a better area for wildlife anywhere outside of Yellowstone National Park,” according to
Alan. Like many of us, Alan has applied for years for the once-in-a-lifetime bull elk hunt in the Valle
Vidal—but is still waiting his turn for the opportunity.
When Alan first heard over five years ago that there would be gas drilling on Ted Turner’s neighboring Vermejo Ranch,
he was excited. Turner did not own the mineral rights to the ranch, but did impose strict guidelines on how the
drilling would proceed. Alan, however, had never before seen Coal Bed Methane drilling—which is an entirely
different kind of drilling. “I figured that gas drilling would bring a few jobs to the area, and done right,
wouldn’t harm the environment,” Alan recalled. “But this coal-bed methane is a different animal. It just
industrializes the wildlands.”
As someone who guides hunters on the Vermejo Ranch, Alan was able to see the effects of coal-bed methane drilling
firsthand. By definition, coal-bed methane requires a high-density of wells, roads and pipelines to extract methane
from coal seams. It requires that coal beds be “fracked” apart with a chemical mixture, the water pumped out, and
the methane then rises out of the seams. The water, which is often highly saline causes it’s own disposal problems
and has harmed fish populations in several states. In Wyoming, for instance, aquatic insect life in the Tongue
River has declined 90 percent due to “produced water” from coal-bed methane drilling. The high density of wells,
roads and pipelines affects the land like a spiderweb of development.
Figuring that El Paso Corporation would likely want to cross the fence and begin drilling on the public hunting
grounds of the Valle Vidal as well, Alan kept vigilant. When he discovered that El Paso had begun lobbying to get
into the Valle Vidal, he got active.
Alan was a founding member of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal. To help raise money and awareness to protect the
Valle Vidal for wildlife, Alan donated an antelope hunt on his own land, and a cow elk hunt that he had won on a
ranch bordering the Vermejo Ranch.
Thanks largely to Alan’s generous donation, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation raised over $4,000 from committed
hunters and informed more than 10,000 hunters about getting active for the Valle Vidal. These funds, and all
additional funds raised, were used to get the word out and to get more hunters and anglers involved. When the Valle
Vidal was donated to the American People in 1982, the federal government made a promise that this area would be managed
with wildlife as the top priority. Alan is one of many dedicated hunters and conservationists who plan to keep our
political representatives accountable for this promise.
Update: Since this biography was written, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, NRA and other sportsmen groups
(and thousands of average sportsmen) were successful in passing legislation to permanently protect the Valle Vidal for
its wildlife, hunting and fishing. To get involved,
join our Sportsmen's E-Mail Action Alert.
Return to top.
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