By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
LAS CRUCES — The New Mexico State Game Commission on Jan. 17 elected Sharon Salazar Hickey, a non-hunter and career lawyer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, to serve as commission chair.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office had announced Hickey’s appointment to the commission the day before the Las Cruces commission meeting. Hickey’s appointment and election as chair follows Lujan Grisham’s decision not to reappoint the former chair, Joanna Prukop, to another term at the end of December.
Prukop has said she was surprised and deeply disappointed by Lujan Grisham’s decision to remove her from the game commission.
Prukop has said she believes Lujan Grisham removed her because she was upset that Prukop was leading the commission to amend or repeal the so-called “Non-navigable Waters Rule” enacted by the previous commission.
The governor’s office hasn’t responded to requests from the New Mexico Wildlife Federation for comment about why she removed Prukop. Staffers at the governor’s office have given news reporters vague statements about Prukop’s departure being the result of unspecified policy differences.
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.
The “non-navigable” 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.
Game Department Director Michael Sloane said Friday that the department has approved five applications from landowners certifying waters as “non-navigable” and a few other such applications are currently pending.
Sloane said the department plans public meetings in coming weeks to take public comment on how to change or repeal the rule.
Enacting the rule followed a 2015 state law that also purportedly enabled landowners to post “non-navigable” streams and their streambeds against trespass.
Several 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 years.
Federation officials emphasize 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. The game commission voted in November to release a letter from an assistant AG that concluded the rule couldn’t be enforced because it’s contrary to the constitution.
In an interview Friday, Hickey said she served eight years on the state’s Youth Conservation Corps Commission. “I don’t play games, that’s who I am. I am very honest and very direct,” she said.
Asked about Prukop’s statements that the governor removed her because of concerns over the non-navigable waters rule, Hickey said, “I do not know Ms. Prukop and never met her. I don’t know why she made that opinion. I cannot speak for Ms. Prukop, nor can I speak for the governor’s office.”
Hickey said she doesn’t know whether the commission will proceed with action to repeal or revise the rule. Hickey said she hasn’t received any direction from the governor over how to deal with the non-navigable waters rule.
“I can’t speak for the commission. I literally just got appointed, so I can’t speak for the other commissioners at this time on whow we’re going to proceed,” Hickey said.
Hickey said she’s never held a hunting license but has gone with family members on hunting trips.
“I respect the hunters in my family, from my grandfather to my uncles, my father, my husband, my children,” Hickey said. “Do I personally hunt, no. Do they? Yes, my ancestors, yes. My ancestors have hunted.”
Hickey said she didn’t ask the governor’s office to be appointed to the game commission but agreed to serve when the office asked her to.
Hickey said she’s a manager at the Los Alamos lab, where she has worked for 40 years.
The game commission voted to re-elect Commissioner Roberta Salazar-Henry as vice chair.
Commissioner Jimmy Bates, a Republican from Albuquerque, said after Friday’s meeting that he doesn’t know why Prukop was removed.
“I have tremendous respect for former chairwoman, Joanna Prukop,” Hickey said. He said he’s looking forward to working with Hickey.