By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
The New Mexico State Game Commission is poised to consider increasing the cost of the state’s habitat stamp from $5 to $10 starting with the 2021-2022 hunting season.
Representatives of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and other conservation organizations on Friday urged the commission to raise the stamp fee.
Currently, the Habitat Stamp Program raises roughly $1 million a year from hunters and anglers, which in turn may bring in up to roughly $3 million a year in additional federal matching funds. Doubling the cost of the stamp would generate up to roughly another $4 million a year.
The cost of purchasing a New Mexico habitat stamp hasn’t increased since the stamp program was created in 1986. Meanwhile, the need for habitat improvement projects has continued to rise, both to meet the increasing demand for hunting and fishing licenses in the state and also to address the increasingly dire effects of drought and climate change on our wildlife, fish and particularly on New Mexico’s wetlands.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF, told commissioners that not only are New Mexico hunters and anglers willing to pay the higher fee, they’re thrilled to do it. He noted that sportsmen and women nationwide have a long history of endorsing taxes on sporting goods to support conservation programs.
Colleen Payne, New Mexico regional director of the Mule Deer Foundation, said many members of her group strongly support increasing funding for important conservation projects.
Kevin Lockhart, speaking for the New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, likewise supported the increase. “”We really think this is key,” he told commissioners. “Obviously, habitat is the foundation of everything that hunters and anglers do.”
Dan Roper, representing Trout Unlimited, urged the commission to tie future increases in the cost of the stamp to the Consumer Price Index.
Commission Chair Sharon Salazar Hickey said she regarded the suggestion of tying the stamp fee to the Consumer Price Index to be an excellent idea.
Commissioner Jeremy Vesbach suggested the commission reduce the number of citizens advisory committees that allocate conservation funding from the stamp program from five regional groups currently to a single, statewide panel. He suggested that 50 percent of the funding, on a rolling five-year average, be earmarked for projects intended to improve conditions for fish.
Stewart Liley, wildlife chief with the game department, told the commission that the department will issue a draft rule in coming weeks incorporating the suggestions for public comment. The commission is on track to consider it at its December meeting.
Beyond the need for increasing the habitat stamp fee, Deubel and several other commenters said the state needs to raise hunting and fishing license fees, which were last increased in 2006. Although the commission itself may increase the cost of the habitat stamp, increasing license fees would require action by the New Mexico State Legislature, which rejected a proposed license fee increase in 2019.
Commissioner Gail Cramer said she recognized the need for a license fee increase. “The big thing with these fees is not a habitat stamp increase, but a license fee increase,” she said.
In closing comments to the commission, Deubel said the NMWF and other conservation organizations recognize the state’s precarious financial position and understand the reluctance to impose any new taxes on state residents. However, he said a range of conservation organizations, all of whom represent hunters and anglers who actually buy licenses, supports increasing license fees to ensure adequate funding for the state’s wildlife resources.
In other action, the commission agreed to consider proposed changes to the state’s mentored hunting program at its December meeting.
Currently under the program, children who haven’t yet attended hunter education classes may hunt under the supervision of a mentor. Game department personnel had recommended lowering the age for children participating in the program from the current minimum of 10 years old down to eight years old while adding pronghorn antelope to the list of game animals that participants may hunt.
Children are eligible to pursue any big game animal if they have completed hunter education, and there’s no minimum age for that.
John Crenshaw, chairman of NMWF board, urged the commission not to lower the age for the mentored hunting program, saying there are concerns about the maturity of eight-year-olds in the hunting fields. He further suggested imposing new requirements that mentors themselves be required to have completed hunter education, not engage in hunting when they’re overseeing a child in the field and only oversee one child at a time.
Commissioner David Soules said he had concerns about the emotional maturity of a child as young as eight shooting a big game animal. “I don’t think third-graders are comfortable with what it means to take a life of something that significant,” he said.
The commission agreed to consider a rule change in December that would allow children age 8 and older to hunt small game under the program, graduating to big game at age 10.