The New Mexico Wildlife Federation encourages hunters and anglers to attend a meeting of the state Game Commission July 24 in Socorro.
The meeting features presentations on several items of critical importance to New Mexico sportsmen.
Among the items on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting is discussion of the commission’s “Non-Navigable Water Rule.”
The previous game commission in 2017 enacted the rule. It purports to allow landowners to petition the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish 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 2017 rule followed a state law enacted in 2015 that stated landowners could post non-navigable streams and their streambeds against trespass. The Game and Fish website shows the department has accepted five applications from landowners requesting the department certify waters as “non-navigable.”
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation recently wrote to the new game commissioners appointed this year by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and urged them to rescind the 2017 rule.
“For far too long, our lawmakers and our game commissioners have sided with private landowners intent on fencing the public away from our most precious public resource: our waters,” said John Crenshaw, president of the NMWF board. “It’s time for that to change and the federation is committed to seeing it happen.”
In its recent letter to the game commission, the NMWF cited a 1945 ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court. The court found that 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.
The court in 1945 rejected arguments from private landowners that allowing the public to walk up streams and fish would amount to trespassing on their lands. Under such a finding, the court said, “we could enjoy no fishing or recreational rights upon much of the public water of this state, although access thereto could be reached without trespass on the privately owned lands of another.”
In recent years, three New Mexico attorneys general have issued opinions that the 1945 court ruling means what it says: that people have a right to fish and use streams that cross private property as long as they don’t trespass to gain access.
Incumbent New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas issued the most recent such opinion in 2016, addressing the legality of the state law that passed in 2015 purporting to require people to get permission from landowners to use streams that run across private property.
In response to a query from the late State Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela whether the 2015 law was permissible, Balderas concluded that the New Mexico Constitution wouldn’t allow any interpretation of the new law, “that would exclude the public from using public water on or running through private property for recreational uses if the public water is accessible without trespassing on private property.”
The game commission also is set to hear an explanation from the game department staff of how the department has been handling the draw allocation of big game permits.
The NMWF in April reported on the results of a detailed analysis of how the game department allocates game licenses.
The analysis by Albuquerque hunter and businessman Brandon Wynn found the game department has been issuing extra licenses for bighorn sheep and other high-demand species to outfitted hunters and nonresidents while commonly failing to give the required percentage of licenses to resident hunters.
Also at the meeting, the commission begin its discussion of setting new rules for bear and cougar hunting. The rules will stand from the 2020 through 2024 hunting seasons.
The commission also will hear an update on the state’s gray wolf program.
At the end of the meeting, the commission is set to hear 30 minutes of public testimony. Each speaker will be limited to two minutes.
The meeting is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wed., July 24 at New Mexico Tech Fidel Center 3rd Floor 808 Olive Lane in Socorro. The agenda lists a closed session during the meeting to discuss pending litigation.
