By Ben Neary
NMWF Conservation Director
SILVER CITY — New Mexico needs to reform its practice of handing more than one-third of its elk licenses straight to private landowners, representatives of the NM Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups told state game commissioners on Friday.
Representatives of ranching and livestock groups, however, told the commission that ranchers rely on income from the sale of elk tags the state gives them. They emphasized that private lands provide vital habitat for wildlife.
The NM State Game Commission held its rare “listening session” Friday in Silver City to hear from members of the public about the state’s Elk Private Lands Use System (EPLUS). Tirzio Lopez, vice chair of the commission, emphasized at Friday’s meeting that the commission wasn’t considering any reforms or other action on EPLUS.
The commission voted in March to hear from the public about EPLUS in response to a recommendation from Sabrina Pack of Silver City, a newly appointed commissioner.
Prior to Pack’s call for a hearing, the game commission had steadfastly refused to entertain any discussion about EPLUS in recent years despite demands from the NMWF and other conservation groups. In her first campaign for governor, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the system needed reform. But now well into her second term, she has yet to address it.
Under EPLUS, the state gives elk permit authorizations to landowners, which they typically sell on the open market.
The authorizations allow whoever holds them to purchase an elk license from the state game department without going through the competitive public lottery system. While most licenses issued through EPLUS restrict hunting to the landowner’s property, others allow hunting on public lands in the same game management unit as the landowner’s property.
The EPLUS licenses allow hunters to specify when they want to hunt within a span of several months. Public draw licenses are limited to set season dates.
The EPLUS system also allows landowners outside of the state’s designated primary elk management zone to sell permission to hunters to hunt their lands without going through the public license draw.
Stewart Liley, chief of the Wildlife Management Division of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, told commissioners that New Mexico issued 36,162 total elk permits and authorizations to buy permits in 2022. Of that total, 13,803 were issued to landowners through EPLUS. Nonresidents ultimately got 10,256 of the EPLUS licenses – over 75 percent of the total.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, showed commissioners a comparison of New Mexico’s elk permit system with the systems of other states in the West.
“New Mexico has the same issues as other western states,” Deubel said. “We have private land; we have public land; we have cattle grazing; we have agriculture.
“All across the West, private landowners provide habitat to public wildlife,” Deubel said. “We’re not unique in that sense. Where we are unique, though, is how we issue both the share and the number of transferable public elk authorizations to private interests.”
The NMWF, New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting and the Outdoors (HECHO) and Hunters of Color recently released a report on the EPLUS system. Read the report HERE.
Deubel said there are only four states in the West that issue transferable elk tags similar to EPLUS. New Mexico is the only one that doesn’t demand a public benefit from landowners in return, such as allowing public hunters to hunt private lands, he said.
Deubel told commissioners that 38 percent of all the elk licenses in New Mexico are done through privatization. The next closest state is Nevada, with just 3 percent, he said.
New Mexico issues only 7 percent of the total elk licenses issued in the West, Deubel said. However, he said 72 percent of the private elk licenses that exist in the West come from New Mexico.
“We have the lowest share of public, resident elk licenses in all of the western states,” Deubel said. Only 55 percent of the elk licenses issued in New Mexico end up in the hands of New Mexico residents, he said. Arizona residents get 92 percent of the elk licenses in their state; Utah residents get 92 percent of the Utah licenses; Nevada residents get 89 percent of their state’s license. Montana gives 87 percent of its elk licenses to state residents.
Although Colorado issues only 59 percent of its elk tags to Colorado residents, Deubel said most of those tags going to nonresidents are over-the-counter tags and don’t take opportunity away from Colorado residents. He said every Colorado resident has the opportunity to hunt elk every year.
Deubel noted that the New Mexico’s nonpartisan Legislative Finance Committee in 2020 recommended that New Mexico consider amending its EPLUS system to be more in line with other western states.
“Game and Fish takes great effort to set hunt levels for big game in a way that sustains herds; however, landowners and out-of-state hunters, not New Mexicans and public land hunters, are the beneficiaries of department policies,” the LFC’s 2020 audit report stated.
The LFC audit prompted Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., to write to game commissioners in 2020 urging them to act to reform EPLUS. The commission failed to act.
Joel Gay, on the board of the New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, told the commission that New Mexico allocates a lower percentage of available elk tags to its residents than any other state in the West.
“In truth, EPLUS has become a way for hunters to simply bypass the elk draw,” Gay said. “We call that buying your way to the front of the line.”
EPLUS has split New Mexico elk hunters into two camps: those who can afford to buy their way to the front of the line and those who can’t, Gay said. He encouraged the game commission to look for ways to bring a larger percentage of elk hunting permits back to the public draw.
John Diamond, a ranch broker from Beaverhead, told the commission he supports EPLUS. He said he’s been impressed by how much work and money ranch owners put into supporting wildlife.
Addressing the percentage of tags that go to resident hunters, Diamond said, “You could have over 90 percent if resident hunters would start buying these elk authorizations,”
Brandon Wynn, an Albuquerque hunter who has worked with the NMWF in analyzing elk permit data, addressed the commission after Diamond spoke.
“Mr. Diamond said anyone can buy an elk permit,” Wynn said. “Well, my answer to that is anyone can buy a Learjet, too — $20,000 for an elk permit? I’m not going to do that.”
Lesli Allison, chief executive officer of the Western Landowners Alliance, told the commission that EPLUS provides necessary income for ranchers who might otherwise have to subdivide their properties.
“I get calls almost every week from landowners around the state saying, ‘if EPLUS goes away, I can’t hold on. It’s the only thing that’s keeping this ranch together anymore,’” Allison said.
Allison said most landowners in the program aren’t wealthy and don’t live outside New Mexico. “Many of them have been on these lands for generations,” she said.
“EPLUS isn’t making anyone wealthy, but it is crucial to keeping some of our very best land and habitat intact,” Allison said. “It’s time to stop the attacks and rhetoric on New Mexico landowners,” she said. “If we want a future for wildlife, we’ve got to work with and not against the people who are keeping these essential lands intact.”
Tom Paterson, leader of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, told commissioners that elk have a negative impact on livestock production on private land.
Paterson said he sees public land hunters driving expensive pickup trucks and OHVs and hauling expensive trailers. Meanwhile, he said no one is helping his crew repair damage to his fences caused by elk.
“I don’t have much sympathy for them,” Paterson said of hunters.