By Ben Neary
NMWF Conservation Director
The Jicarilla Apache Nation is calling on the New Mexico State Game Commission to take emergency action to reduce the number of deer licenses the state issues in a hunt unit bordering tribal lands.
Ranchers in southern New Mexico, meanwhile, want the game commission to take emergency action to address what they say is a rising threat to public safety from Mexican Gray Wolves.
The commission didn’t act immediately on either of the requests at its meeting Friday in Roswell. Both the deer hunting and wolf safety issues are sure to continue to come before the commission at future meetings.
Jicarilla representatives told commissioners that state-permitted hunters are killing too many young bucks in Unit 2-B. The unit borders Colorado, between Bloomfield and Chama.
The Jicarilla representatives called on the commission to shift its management of Unit 2-B by the 2026 hunting season.
The state currently manages Unit 2-B as an “opportunity” area, where many hunters get a chance to hunt. The tribe is asking the state to shift management to being a “quality” area, where fewer deer would be killed so the remaining animals get to mature into larger, trophy animals.
Kyle Tator, Jicarilla wildlife biologist, told commissioners that the tribe has seen a sharp decline in the buck deer in the area in recent years as a result of the state hunting program. He said the Jicarilla harvest 50 deer a year from 850,000 acres of their reservation while the state issues 1,750 licenses on adjacent Unit 2-B, which is about 477,000 acres.
The Jicarilla Nation reserves most of its deer licenses for tribal members, officials said. It sells a few to non-members at high prices. The reservation has had a reputation as one of the best areas in the nation for trophy mule deer.
Tribal officials told the commission that the state failed to consult with the tribe before increasing deer tags in the area in recent years. Deer migrate from Colorado through tribal and federal lands in the area. Officials said they regard the state’s actions as being in violation of the law.
Commissioner Fernando Clemente, a wildlife biologist, responded that it’s well known that mule deer populations are declining around the Southwest and in Northern Mexico.
Stewart Liley, chief biologist with the game department, said the only time that killing buck deer would drive down the population growth of the entire herd is when males fall below 10 percent of the total population.
Tater responded that the Jicarilla Nation wasn’t asking for state action to restore total herd numbers, but to restore “age class,” meaning allowing bucks to reach full maturity. He said the Jicarilla are asking the state to undertake “a wholesale change in Unit 2B.”
The Jicarilla representatives asked the commission to direct game department staff to meet with them to discuss management issues in the area and develop a plan to address issues. The tribe wants the commission to act on the matter at its June 13 meeting in Red River.
Commission Chairman Richard Stump told tribal representatives that the commission would take the issue under advisement. “It’s a big ask for the hunters of the state,” he said of the request to cut licenses in the game unit.
Stump also noted that the game commission will start the process next year of revising its four-year Deer Rule, which sets seasons and license numbers around the state. He said the cuts in license numbers the tribe is asking for aren’t biologically necessary.
On the wolf issue, Catron County Commissioners Audrey McQueen and Buster Green told the game commission that wolves are posing a threat to children and pets.
Earlier this month, the Catron County Commission held a special meeting to declare a state of emergency, seeking legal authority to kill wolves that pose a threat.
Wolves in New Mexico are federally protected and killing them by the general public is illegal.
Since their initial reintroduction in southern New Mexico and Arizona in 1998, the wolf population has grown. Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March reported that the number of wolves in the wild at the end of January in Arizona and New Mexico had reached a minimum of 286 animals.
“Steadily, our conditions have become worse,” McQueen told commissioners. “On behalf of our livestock producers, we’re asking for more help.”
McQueen said funds to reimburse ranchers who lose cattle to wolves are insufficient.
“We no longer have a livestock crisis in Catron County; we have a public safety crisis,” McQueen said.
“The Department of Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a narrow window to take action,” McQueen said. “Failure to do so, and we will take action to protect ourselves.”
Since the start of the year, the federal government has laid off range riders that had been employed to safeguard cattle, McQueen said. “For a lot of years, we dealt with the livestock portion of it. Now we’re in a human crisis.”
Mike Sloane, game department director, said federal officials have set a wolf population goal the animals have to meet in order to be considered recovered to end federal protections. He said that the goal calls for surveys to find at least 320 wolves each year for four years in the United States plus another 200 in Mexico.
Commissioner Gregg Fulfer questioned whether the game commission could establish that it wants to limit the wolf population to 100 in the state. “And if they come to a populated area, that they be removed to an unpopulated area, and that we create a kill and depredation specialist to support the cattlemen, and residents,” he said.
Sloane responded that it wouldn’t have any effect for New Mexico to try to limit wolf numbers because the population figures have been litigated in federal court. He said the best way for the state to gain management control is to reach the recovery numbers so wolves would lose federal protections and come under state management.
Clemente questioned what control New Mexico has over the wolf population in Mexico. “They have their own issues, their own problems, their own politics,” he said.
Commissioner Sharon Salazar Hickey said the commission has a responsibility to public safety. She questioned whether there was anything the commission could do to work with the county on the wolf issue.
Liley said the federal Wildlife Services was instrumental in carrying out non-lethal actions to control wolves in Catron County and across wolf range.
“Basically all of the people who work with Wildlife Services who work with wolves in Catron County have gone in the last two months,” Liley said. He said he’s exploring whether the state could hire range riders to help fill that void.
“This is not a problem that’s isolated in New Mexico, this is a problem in a lot of the western United States,” Liley said.
Tom Paterson, a Catron County rancher and president-elect of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, suggested a halt to the wolf-reintroduction program. He suggested state wildlife officials talk to federal officials running the program.
“They might listen to you,” Paterson said. “They darn sure don’t listen to us. They pat us on the head, and ignore us.”
Joanna Zhang, endangered species advocate at WildEarth Guardians, suggested the game commission could alleviate the wolf issue in Catron County by ending its prohibition against allowing wolves to expand their range north of Interstate 40.
Brandon Wynn of Albuquerque commented that he’s been hunting turkeys in southern New Mexico for decades. He said the current drought conditions in Catron County are unbelievable.
“Cattle grazing on public lands is severely degrading the habitat,” Wynn said. He said the game commission already gives enough to the cattle industry through its program of giving landowners transferable elk tags.
“The commission caters and caters and caters to ranchers,” Wynn said. “They don’t think there should be wildlife; they don’t think there should be other people on the landscape.”