ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico’s system of allocating elk licenses skews hard in favor of private interests and wealthy individuals, a new report by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and the New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers shows.
The groups pressed to obtain data from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish that reveals nonresidents obtained over 35 percent of the total elk licenses issued by the state in 2021. Other states in the West, including neighboring Arizona, limit nonresident hunters to a maximum of 10 percent of licenses.
The report gives the first detailed public accounting of New Mexico’s “Elk Private Land Use System.” Under that system, the state game commission gives elk permit authorizations to private landowners who are then free to resell them to the highest bidder. Click HERE to read the report.
Just over 75 percent of all licenses issued through EPLUS went to nonresidents last year. Over 83 percent of the EPLUS bull licenses went to nonresidents. Many EPLUS licenses allow hunters to hunt on public lands, where they compete with resident hunters who drew tags in the public draw.
The report also examines elk licenses issued under New Mexico’s unique “outfitter set-aside” law. That law reserves 10 percent of licenses issued through the public draw to hunters who contract with an outfitter before filing their license application. The report shows that nonresidents drew nearly 90 percent of the “outfitter set-aside” licenses while residents drew just over 10 percent.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF, said the report reveals a system badly in need of reform.
“The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has been calling on the state game commission to fix the EPLUS system for years,” Deubel said. “So far, the commission has refused to act.
“Other states in the West fight to preserve hunting opportunities for their own residents,” Deubel said. “But our report shows New Mexico does everything it can to help the wealthiest hunters cut to the front of the line. They get to hunt elk that belong to New Mexico citizens every year while many resident hunters can’t draw elk licenses.”
Deubel said New Mexico’s system undercuts bedrock principles of wildlife management that specify wildlife belongs to the public, not to private landowners.
“We’re seeing our state’s family hunting traditions die while elk hunting in New Mexico increasingly becomes a pay-to-play exercise,” Deubel said. “I encourage all New Mexico hunters to speak up and demand real change.”
New Mexicans must work together to improve resident elk hunting opportunity and the chance to put meat on the family table. Sign up to take back your elk at takebackyourelk.com.