By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
The newly elected chairman of the New Mexico State Game Commission is hunt manager on a ranch owned by a lawyer with Texas roots who unsuccessfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the public’s right to fish and recreate on New Mexico rivers and streams.
The game commission on Thursday unanimously elected Richard Stump, hunt manager on the Troustalker Ranch south of Chama, to serve as commission chairman. The commission met in Hobbs.
The Troutstalker Ranch is owned by Dan Perry, a lawyer originally from Texas. As Perry has worked to try to block public access to public water in recent years, he and his relatives have made substantial contributions to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s political campaigns. Lujan Grisham appointed Stump to the game commission in March.
Stump declined comment on his election as game commission chair after Thursday’s vote. The commission also elected Sharon Salazar Hickey, a lawyer, to serve as commission vice chair. She had previously served as chair.
“The New Mexico Wildlife Federation wishes Chairman Stump the best in his tenure on the state game commission,” NMWF Executive Director Jesse Deubel said after Thursday’s meeting.
“Our game commission serves as trustee for the New Mexico public of a priceless resource: our wildlife,” Deubel said. “That’s a sacred trust, and we will continue to monitor commission actions carefully and continue to insist on protecting the interests of New Mexico hunters and anglers.”
Perry unsuccessfully opposed legal action by the NMWF and its partner organizations to overturn a game commission regulation that purported to allow the commission to certify that rivers and streams crossing private land were not public water, and accordingly were closed to public access. Perry had secured a game commission certificate stating that the section of the Rio Chama that flows over his ranch was “private water” and closed to the public.
In response to legal action from the NMWF and its partners, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in September 2022 that the commission regulation was unconstitutional. The court’s ruling on the “stream access” issue voided the certificates the commission had issued to Perry and other landowners stating that they could close waters that crossed their property to the public.
The state constitution states that all waters of the state are public. The NMSC ruling reaffirmed that the public has the right to fish and recreate on rivers and streams provided they don’t trespass over private property to reach the water. The court stated that the use of the beds and banks along the waterways must be of minimal impact.
The court ruling held that the public’s right to use the waters of New Mexico extends in an unbroken line back through statehood, territorial times, Mexican and Spanish rule and has its roots in the American Indian traditions.
Prior to the court ruling, the Troutstalker Ranch had a cable across the Rio Chama. The cable was coiled up on the river bank last year when members of the Adobe Whitewater Club and the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office visited the site last year. The Adobe Whitewater Club and the NM Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers joined with the NMWF in challenging the game commission regulation.
After the NM Supreme Court ruling, Perry and another ranch operator from Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments that the state court ruling amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property rights. The high court declined to hear the matter.
In March, after Lujan Grisham appointed Stump to the game commission, he said the legal fight over public water access has nothing to do with him. “It has to be decided in the courts, that’s all I have to say,” he said.
Stump said in March that Lujan Grisham asked him to serve on the commission. “I’ve known her for a good amount of time,” he said.
Lujan Grisham had forced out former game commission Chair Joanna Prukop and former Vice Chair Jeremy Vesbach – both conservationists with impeccable credentials – while the stream access issue was pending in the courts. Both Prukop and Vesbach have said the governor removed them from the commission because she was unhappy that they didn’t try to preserve the commission regulation that allowed Perry and other landowners to fence off public water.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has done little to encourage the public to avail itself of the right to fish and recreate on waters that cross private property since that right was reaffirmed by the NM Supreme Court. State lawmakers have criticized Game Department Director Michael Sloane for inaction, but he has responded that he needs direction from the Legislature on how to implement the ruling.
But while the game department claims it lacks the ability to act, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has been active in fighting to ensure public access to public water.
In October, Torrez filed a complaint to force landowners along the upper Pecos River to remove fences and other barriers. In March, respondent Erik Briones entered an agreement with Torrez’s office, the NM Department of Justice, to remove barriers by May 24 that interfere with public access.
Lauren Rodriguez, director of communications for Torrez’s office, issued a statement on Thursday saying the office has reached agreements with three additional property owners to remove barriers along the Pecos. She said the office is prepared to take further legal action if necessary against any property owners who won’t comply voluntarily and remove barriers.
Rodriguez said the Department of Justice encourages members of the public to report any unlawful obstructions that interfere with the public’s use of public water anywhere in the state on the department’s website at www.nmdoj.gov.
In addition to being a major player in the stream access issue, Perry benefits from the state’s controversial “Elk Private Land Use System’ (EPLUS.) Under that system, the state game commission hands more than a third of the state’s elk licenses straight to private landowners, who are then free to sell them on the open market.
According to the game department’s website, Perry’s ranch receives permit authorizations for five bull elk, three cow elk and two either-sex elk bow tags. The game commission in April heard requests from the NMWF and others at its meeting in Silver City to reform the EPLUS system to give more elk tags to resident hunters through the public draw.
Research by the NMWF and its partner organizations has revealed in recent years that the vast majority of the elk tags landowners receive through EPLUS are sold to nonresident hunters. While many other states limit nonresident hunters to 10 percent of big game licenses, New Mexico stands alone in giving fully 35 percent of elk licenses to nonresidents, mainly as a result of EPLUS. For more information on EPLUS, click HERE.
In other action, the commission on Thursday took the first step toward extending the state’s bighorn sheep rule for two more years. Commission rules for particular species spell out hunting seasons and set a cap for the number of hunting licenses that may be issued.
Although most big game rules are established for four years, the game commission rule for bighorn sheep that expires this year was only enacted for two years. The commission intended the shorter rule to encourage the state Legislature and others to reconcile conflicts between two provisions of state law that govern requirements on how the state issues bighorn sheep licenses.
Since 2014, the game commission has lumped 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.
The state’s quota law specifies that residents must receive 84 percent of the tags issued through the public draw. Another 10 percent go to hunters who retain an outfitter before they apply and 6 percent are reserved for nonresident hunters who apply without an outfitter.
Without lumping the sheep tags together in single hunt codes, outfitted hunters and nonresidents would be ineligible to draw tags because sheep hunts are limited to so few animals, typically fewer than five. With such a small number of licenses, it would be mathematically impossible to issue any to outfitted hunters or nonresidents while meeting the obligation to state resident hunters.
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.
The NMWF has called for increased resident sheep hunting opportunities and supports legislative action to reconcile conflicts in the state statutes while giving resident hunters all possible consideration. The commission will consider the proposed sheep rule again this summer before a final vote on whether to extend it.