By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
The New Mexico State Game Commission on Friday failed to reach agreement on a new approach to allocating bighorn sheep tags. That failure leaves prospects uncertain for adopting a new bighorn rule on schedule this year.
Commissioner Roberta Salazar-Henry proposed changing the existing system of allocating bighorn tags to give a few more tags to New Mexico resident hunters. She made the proposal at Friday’s commission meeting in Eagle Nest.
Salazar-Henry’s proposal died on a tie vote. Commissioner Tirzio Lopez voted with Salazar-Henry while Commission Chair Sharon Salazar Hickey and Vice Chair Deanna Archuleta voted no.
The commission is now on track to vote in August on the original New Mexico Department of Game and Fish proposal for issuing bighorn tags. Salazar-Henry said Friday she would oppose it.
Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham has been slow to fill vacancies on the game commission, which now has only four of seven positions filled.
If there are still only four commissioners in place at the August meeting, all four would have to vote in favor to adopt any new rule. Salazar-Henry’s opposition to the bighorn plan that New Mexico Department of Game and Fish staff recommended would be enough to block it. The commission needs to pass a bighorn sheep rule by the end of the year to establish hunts for coming years.
The game department’s proposed bighorn plan, released early this year, called for continuing the practice that’s been in place since 2014 of lumping all Rocky Mountain ram tags into one hunt code, all Rocky Mountain ewe tags into a second hunt code and all desert ram tags into a third hunt code.
Lumping all the sheep tags together allows the state to give sheep licenses to hunters who retain an outfitter prior to submitting their license applications as well as to nonresident hunters. Without lumping the tags together, those two groups would be ineligible to draw tags.
New Mexico’s quota law specifies that residents must receive a minimum of 84 percent of the tags for each hunt. The law reserves 10 percent for residents or nonresidents who have contracted with an outfitter and 6 percent for nonresidents who haven’t contracted with an outfitter.
In order to have enough tags to give New Mexico residents the required minimum of 84 percent and still have a tag left over for an outfitted hunter, a specific hunt must have a minimum of seven tags. And in order to give a tag to a nonresident hunter who hasn’t contracted with an outfitter, a hunt must have at least 13 tags.
Many other states in the West reserve 90 percent of hunting licenses for residents and limit nonresidents to 10 percent.
The NMWF has criticized the current bighorn license system, pointing out that by lumping all the tags together under single hunt codes, the commission effectively has ignored the state law definition of “hunt code.” The law says a hunt code must specify the species, weapon type and time frame for a specific hunt. The bighorn and desert ram hunts are spread out over several months and many are hundreds of miles apart.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF, told commissioners on Friday that the federation is opposed to the commission continuing to lump bighorn hunts together under single hunt codes.
Deubel said the state statute setting a quota on license distribution and the statute defining a huntcode are clearly in conflict, He urged the commission to take action that will lead to future legislative action to resolve the issue.
The New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides has opposed changing the existing bighorn license system.
Kerrie Romero, executive director of the NMCOG, told commissioners Friday that the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office has confirmed it’s legal for the commission to lump the bighorn hunts under single huntcodes. She said any change to the existing system would be in violation of the state’s quota law.
Bryan Bartlett of the NM Wild Sheep Foundation, testified Friday that his group supports the bighorn rule as presented by the game department, which would continue to lump permits together.
“We refuse to agree to any decision that disregards the significant contributions that nonresidents have made to bighorn sheep recovery over the last 35 years,” Bartlett said, adding that nonresidents are stakeholders because of what they’ve contributed.
At its May 9 meeting, the commission directed New Mexico Department of Game and Fish staff to hold a meeting with the NMWF, the NMCOG, NMWSF and others to try to reach a compromise.
In trying to reach a compromise, the NMWF supported various proposals put forth by Albuquerque hunter Brandon Wynn that would have reduced the number of tags earmarked for outfitted hunters while still allowing them to draw some licenses. The NMCOG and the NMWSF rejected all such proposals.
Salazar-Henry said Friday she was disappointed that the groups had failed to reach agreement on any compromise. She said she has received emails commenting erroneously that the game commission was considering proposals to end nonresident hunting entirely.
Salazar-Henry said the last game commission, under former Gov. Susana Martinez, created the practice of lumping bighorn tags together after sheep came under the state’s quota law. She said the current commission ought to act to address the problem.
In response to criticism that nonresident hunters have paid an outsized share of the cost of restoring New Mexico’s sheep herds through purchasing lottery tags, Salazar-Henry said all New Mexico resident hunters have paid to support the effort as well through their license fees for other species.
“I just want people to quit saying that the residents aren’t contributing their fair share,” Salazar-Henry said.
“I’m not going to be ashamed to say I’m benefitting resident hunters in this state,” Salazar-Henry said.
Salazar-Henry proposed continuing to lump 13 Rocky Mountain ram tags and 13 desert ram tags, while directing all tags above that number to specific hunt codes, meaning only residents could draw. Under that proposal, nonresident hunters would continue to get one Rocky Mountain ram tag and one desert ram tag but outfitted hunters would see their total drop from five total ram tags to two.
Chair Salazar Hickey said that they’re really making an attempt to come up with a compromise, but said that lumping some and not others complicates things. Said that the public and the game department need clarity in the rules. “When you start dabbling in things like that, it’s problematic to me,” she said.
The commission deadlocked on Salazar Hickey’s proposal that Salazar-Henry to attend a mediation session with groups on both sides of the issue “with the goal of that meeting to flesh out possible reasons for approving the existing department’s rule.”
Salazar-Henry and Lopez voted against Salazar Hickey’s mediation suggestion, while Salazar Hickey and Archuleta voted for it.
Speaking after the meeting, Deubel said the NMWF appreciates Commissioners Salazar-Henry and Lopez voting to support New Mexico residents in the bighorn draw.
“For too long, we’ve seen New Mexico game commissions willing to give special consideration to wealthy people, often nonresidents, who can afford to buy their way to the head of the line,” Deubel said. “Other states in the West are standing up for their own residents and the New Mexico Wildlife Federation believes it’s time that ours does as well.”