By Ben Neary
NMWF Conservation Director
New Mexico’s wildlife management agency is on the verge of a new era that will see both increased funding as well as wider authority to manage non-game species.
Biologists with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish have compiled a new State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) that provides an overview of hundreds of species of wildlife and assesses actions necessary to conserve them and their habitat.
Once approved by the New Mexico State Game Commission, the SWAP will help to conserve fish and wildlife proactively to prevent species from becoming endangered. The plan also will serve as a reference that allows members of the public to learn about specific species that need help in their area.
Virginia “Ginny” Seamster, Ph.D., assistant chief for technical guidance in the department’s Wildlife Management Division, will talk about the SWAP and take questions from the public at the New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s free “Wildlife Wednesday” series. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. June 11, at Marble Brewery’s Northeast Heights Taproom, 9904 Montgomery Blvd., NE., in Albuquerque.
Seamster has been with the agency for 10 years and supervises the state’s “Biota Information System of New Mexico” – called “BISON-M” – which tracks information about the biology and legal status for thousands of species in the state.
Federal agencies in recent months have been scrubbing their websites and publications of any mention of climate change. But the SWAP doesn’t shy away from the issue.
“New Mexico is basically the driest state in the United States and I feel like climate change in conjunction with other threats is one of the biggest drivers of population declines,” Seamster said. “Obviously, habitat loss is a big threat, too, but when you combine something like habitat loss with hotter, drier conditions, the environment is very stressful for a lot of species.”
The SWAP lists climate change as one of its enumerated threats to wildlife.
“So we have some things that are focused on understanding the threat of climate change, and other things that are focused on actually doing something about it,” Seamster said. “And as much as possible, we did try to incorporate climate-smart concepts into actions that address other threats.”
The federal government requires New Mexico and other states to update their wildlife action plans every 10 years as a condition of receiving federal funds. New Mexico stands to receive about $1 million in federal funds each year, Seamster said.
The state agency released the draft SWAP last month and is accepting public comments on it until June 9. The NM State Game Commission is scheduled to act on the plan at its June 13 meeting in Red River. The final plan is due to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by this fall.
The SWAP identifies 505 species of greatest conservation need, including burrowing owls, pinyon jays, river otters, Chiracahua leopard frogs, and Gila trout. Of that number, 303 species are targeted because more scientific data is needed to understand their status and conservation needs. This category includes animals like American dippers, yellow-bellied marmots, and Gila monsters, along with dozens of pollinating insects.
The New Mexico Legislature earlier this year enacted Senate Bill 5, which expanded the role of the state’s wildlife agency and increased funding. The legislation provides that the NM Department of Game and Fish will be renamed and will be called the NM Department of Wildlife starting next year.
The SB5 legislation also expanded the authority of the game commission to include new invertebrate species, including insects. The pending SWAP lists dozens of species of bees, butterflies and other insects as species in greatest need of conservation.
Researchers have scant information regarding many of the insect species on the list, Seamster said. She said some may be removed from the list once more research is done.
“Being on the Species of Greatest Conservation Need list means that you can use state wildlife grant monies to do work on that species,” Seamster said. “So, right off the bat, assuming that things don’t change at the federal level, which they could, there is the potential for some resources to be available at the federal level to do work on that species.”
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation strongly supported SB 5 as it moved through the New Mexico Legislature this year. Jesse Deubel, NMWF executive director, served as a witness for the bill’s sponsors at legislative committee hearings.
In addition to widening the scope of the state agency’s responsibilities to include more invertebrate species, SB5 also raised hunting and fishing license fees for the first time in decades, promising to bring the agency about $10 million a year in new revenue.
New Mexico’s Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund provides about $3 million a year for work on species of greatest conservation need. The Legislature this year also provided an additional $10.5 million in general appropriation funding for work on species of greatest conservation need.
Seamster said the influx of new funding means that there will be increased resources available for research and conservation of species on the list.
Beyond the funding issue, Seamster said the plan should help conservation groups and others gain more knowledge about species they want to help. “The hope is that they could open up the document and see themselves in it,” she said. “See a species they’re interested in and can work on, see actions that are relevant to the work that they do that they can help implement. We can’t do all of this ourselves, all of the species and all of the actions that are listed in there, there’s no way that in 10 years that we’re going to be able to get to all of that.”
The SWAP itself doesn’t change which animal species are protected in the state, Seamster said. The expansion of the commission’s authority to include all invertebrates including insects starts next year.
“But what we can protect has dramatically extended,” Seamster said.
Meanwhile, Seamster said the plan offers the public the opportunity to look at six different ecoregions of the state to see what sorts of wildlife in need of conservation exist in them.
“You can figure out where you live, and just look at that list, and see, ‘hey, these are some of the species that might be in trouble near where I am,’” she said. The plan provides information about things that conservation organizations and others can do to help conserve particular species, even if all they have to work with is a small yard.
“The goal of this document is to provide information on species that we have some level of concern for and lay out actions that could be taken to help those species,” Seamster said. “And we really do want this document to be applicable to as many people as possible, both conservation practitioners and members of the public, too.
“Obviously, there’s plenty of actions in there that the average person won’t be able to undertake,” Seamster said. “But we have a lot of actions that do call out private landowners. And we do want these to be things that people can say, ‘hey, I can do that. I can do that on my land.’
“The actions are broad enough that we want them to be statewide,” Seamster said. “And we want them to be something that can be tailored to what’s appropriate in your area, and appropriate to the resources that you have and the jurisdictions that are pertinent.”
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