By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has removed Joanna Prukop as chair of the New Mexico State Game Commission.
Prukop, who has served as chair of the state game commission since June, said Tuesday that John Bingaman, the governor’s chief of staff, informed her she would not be reappointed to a new term starting Jan. 1.
Prukop said Bingaman offered no explanation for Lujan Grisham’s decision. Prukop said Bingaman praised her performance but said she would receive a letter informing her that her services were no longer required.
Attempts to reach Bingaman for comment on Tuesday were not immediately successful. None of the other six sitting commissioners was removed.
“I am, as you can imagine, hugely disappointed,” Prukop said Tuesday. “I feel like we were just starting our work.”
Prukop’s removal comes amid controversy over the game commission’s recent move to amend or repeal the so-called “Non-navigable Waters Rule” enacted by the previous commission. The rule purports to allow landowners to petition the game department to certify streams and other waters on private property as “non-navigable” and accordingly closed to public access without the owner’s written permission.
The rule followed a state law enacted in 2015 that also purportedly enabled landowners to post “non-navigable” streams and their streambeds against trespass. The game department has approved five applications from landowners certifying waters as “non-navigable” and a few other such applications are currently pending — all from wealthy landowners.
Several large landowners in the state have spoken out against changing the rule or allowing public access to streams that cross their lands.
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has been lobbying against the non-navigable rule in recent months. Jesse Deubel, NMWF executive director, and John Crenshaw, NMWF board president, wrote to the game commission this summer urging it to roll back the rule.
Crenshaw and Deubel have emphasized that the New Mexico Constitution specifies that waters of the state belong to the public. They also pointed to a 1945 ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court that found the public — meaning anglers, boaters or others — may fish, float or otherwise use streams and streambeds where they run through private property as long as the public doesn’t trespass across private land to access the waters, or trespass from the stream onto private land.
Several New Mexico attorneys general have issued opinions in recent years upholding the high court’s interpretation in the intervening years.
Michael Sloane, director of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, asked the AG’s Office for an opinion on the constitutionality of the non-navigable Waters rule this summer. Prukop voted in November with the majority of commissioners to release a Sept. 17 memo from Assistant Attorney General John Grubesic that was highly critical of the rule.
Grubesic stated in his memo that although other states rely on the “test of navigability” to determine whether waterways are open to the public, that measure doesn’t apply in New Mexico. He stated that any language in the rule which attempts “to prohibit access to the public waters of New Mexico” is unconstitutional and unenforceable.
The game department is currently taking public comment on its process of amending or repealing the rule. Prukop had said the game commission would take public comment on the issue starting early next year.
Prukop said Tuesday she couldn’t speculate whether the commission’s work to address the non-navigable rule contributed to the governor’s decision not to keep her on the commission.
Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, had announced the appointment of Prukop and six other game commissioners in May to serve out the terms of previous commissioners commissioners who had been appointed by her Republican predecessor, Susana Martinez.
Before taking over as the first woman to chair the game commission, Prukop served as the secretary of the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Before that, she worked for 25 years at the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
After leaving state government, Prukop served in President Barack Obama’s administration as a three-term appointee to the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council. She holds a master’s degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University.
“Of course, I feel that I am highly qualified, and the fact that I ran a major state agency with multiple responsibilities in a very successful manner should indicate to all that I’m a good manager,” Prukop said.
“I know state processes and things like budget, personnel,” Prukop said. “I’m a good administrator, with a very strong background in wildlife conservation and natural resource management. I’ve dealt with a lot of issues successfully, and I do not understand why I have been removed from the commission after six or seven short months.”
Deubel, executive director of the NMWF, said Tuesday he was extremely disappointed to hear of the governor’s decision not to retain Prukop.
“During the last six months Joanna Prukop has clearly demonstrated both her passion and her expertise for wildlife management,” Deubel said. “Her meticulous adherence to the New Mexico Open Meetings Act has been only one example of her commitment to encouraging public engagement. Ms. Prukop has proven herself to be a courageous leader willing to take on the toughest of issues facing New Mexico hunters, anglers and wildlife enthusiasts.”
Deubel said Lujan Grisham’s unexplained decision not to retain Prukop serves as a glaring example of why the state needs to reform the structure of the game commission. A bill that would have allowed the Legislature to appoint some commissioners and specify that sitting commissioners could only be removed for cause, not at the whim of the governor, died in the last legislative session.