SANTA FE — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and key state lawmakers met with representatives of conservation groups in Santa Fe Tuesday to celebrate the passage of Wildlife Corridors Act in this year’s legislative session.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, puts up $500,000 for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the New Mexico Department of Transportation to identify areas around the state where wildlife crossing highways poses a risk to motorists. The bill directs the departments to take steps to reduce the dangers.
Lujan Grisham thanked legislators as well as conservation groups for their work on the legislation. She said the state has a responsibility to make the investments that protect drivers and also to make sure that the migration of all of the state’s species is uninhibited to the highest degree.
“From folks who just worry about whether our public safety issues for drivers is being met or folks who represent the environment or wildlife considerations or sportsmen, everyone who is working with your elected leaders to make a difference in solving these problems makes an incredible difference for a state like ours,” Lujan Grisham said.
Stephanie Garica Richards, New Mexico land commissioner, said she’s ready address the wildlife corridor issue on state trust lands. “I stand ready and willing and committed to this effort,” she said.
Stewart said she understands the bill is the first such measure passed by any state in the West. She said she had worked with Michael Dax of Defenders of Wildlife for years on the measure before its passage this year.
“I”m just so proud of everybody in this room for working with us because many of your organizations had a chance to change the bill, working with us in the interim, so this is just going to put us on the map,” Stewart said.
Dax agreed the state is on track to be a leader in wildlife corridor protection. “New Mexico is really in a position to take the reins and show the rest of the West how true corridor conservation can be done,” he said.
Dax noted that Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., recently introduced federal legislation that would direct federal land and water management agencies to collaborate with each other and with states, tribes, local governments and private landowners to establish and manage National Wildlife Corridors intended to protect habitat and wildlife.
And Dax also noted that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke last year signed an order intended to improve collaboration between western states, private landowners and the federal government to protect wildlife corridors.
Jeremy Romero, regional connectivity coordinator for the NM Wildlife Federation and National WIldlife Federation, said the passage of the WIldlife Corridors Act is a great step for New Mexico and the county in protecting both motorists and wildlife.
“Our land and the wildlife we share it with are an integral part of who we are,” Romero said. “This part of the country just wouldn’t be the same without elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep or pronghorn.”
Among the conservation groups represented were also: the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Conservation Voters of New Mexico, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, The Sierra Club, HECHO, WildEarth Guardians and Trout Unlimited.
