An elk grazes outside of Ruidoso, driven out of the mountains from the South Fork and Salt fires. Lawmakers are looking to reform the state’s agency which manages wildlife in the upcoming 2025 session. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
Lawmakers are again mulling reforms to the state’s wildlife management and conservation agency, which has been roiled by accusations of politicization under the last two governors and plagued by high turnover on its governing board.
The state agency is the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, which manages state-run wildlife conservation programs and regulates hunting and fishing, all overseen by a seven-member board appointed by the governor.
Sponsor Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) announced a pair of bills he’s bringing forward in January’s 60-day session, continuing an effort he’s made over eight years alongside conservation, agricultural, and hunting and fishing groups.
McQueen said his proposals would broaden the agency’s current “hook and bullet” wildlife priorities and address issues with the Game Commission.
“It’s time for our department and our commission to expand their role and their mindset, to be a fully-fledged wildlife agency,” McQueen said.
‘We’re gonna get this across the line’
On Tuesday, McQueen elaborated on the proposals and presented draft copies before fellow lawmakers during Tuesday’s interim Water and Natural Resources meeting.
One bill would rename the agency to the Department of Wildlife, widen its mission to support animals beyond hunting or angling and increase its budget. A second provision would also change the agency’s governing board’s structure, create credentials for holding a position and insulate it from frequent turnover.
This year’s bill would walk back measures passed by lawmakers in 2023 to reform the game commission. House Bill 184 gave lawmakers picks for the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission. The bill passed both chambers but failed to become law, after Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t sign it, called a pocket-veto.
The 2025 bill would still leave the appointment power with the governor, but would establish a nominating committee to submit names, which McQueen called an improvement on the vetoed bill.
Majority Floor Leader Sen. Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) warned that 2025 – which holds the last long session during Lujan Grisham’s time in office – may be the Roundhouse’s last chance to pass this reform before a new administration.
“I’m delighted that you’re working hand-in-hand with the administration, because I think that’s the way we’re gonna get this across the line, versus getting into vetoes and fights,” Wirth said.
While 16 conservation and hunting groups and other Democratic lawmakers expressed support, there’s still significant hurdles ahead. There’s no bipartisan sponsor on the bill, which departs from prior years.
One Republican on the committee, Sen. Pat Woods from Clovis, said he didn’t approve of changes to the agency, saying that it would overlap with federal agencies’ wildlife responsibilities.
Addressing the mission
Lawmakers would appropriate about $10 million over three years to the agency, said Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces), who chairs the consequential House Appropriations and Finance Committee, where all budget discussions start. The money would come from the Government Results and Opportunity funds, adding $3.3 million to the agency’s annual budget for three years.
The money would include funding for pilot projects and pay for habitat improvements for animals on the state’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need list, which ranges from mollusks to mammals.
Currently, the agency is funded nearly exclusively by fees generated by hunting and fishing licenses.
In a presentation to lawmakers Monday, Director Michael Sloane said the agency’s budget request remains flat at $53.9 million, as it has been for the past six years, because lawmakers have not increased hunting or fishing license fees.
He warned that if lawmakers don’t increase the fees, which are set in state law, the agency may soon have a shortfall.
“We’ve had bills moving through the legislature at various times, unsuccessfully,” Sloane said. “But right now, if we project out our cash balances and where we expect to be, if we continue on the path we’re on, we expect to have significant fiscal issues in FY 29.”
Addressing the Game and Fish Commission
The second bill would address the agency’s governing board.
The Game and Fish Commission is made up of seven members – there is currently one vacancy on the board. They are broken out by five geographic districts, and two at-large members including a rancher or farmer and one person from the conservation community.
Lawmakers and conservation and hunting groups, while sometimes opposed on other issues, have decried the board’s “politicization” and “dysfunction,” where members are appointed by the governor and can be fired at any time.
Two former commissioners, Joanna Prukop and Jeremy Vesbach said they were forced off the commission during Lujan Grisham’s first term over their positions on stream access issues – which a New Mexico Supreme Court order rendered moot.
The reformed game commission McQueen would bring before lawmakers would still have seven members.
However, the makeup would be three at-large members with backgrounds in wildlife issues, and four positions with specific backgrounds: a farmer or rancher, a conservationist, a hunter or angler and an academic in wildlife science. The reforms would also mandate all commissioners reside in different counties and no more than four can be from the same political party.
The new nominating committee charged with submitting names for consideration would include members of the state’s two universities, a member of a Native American nation, tribe or pueblo, and four members of legislative leadership from both parties.
The proposal would increase term-times for commissioners to six-year staggered terms, rather than four years.
McQueen outlined a process to automatically remove commissioners if they are no longer eligible – if they move out of state, for example. He also outlined a second process to remove commissioners for cause, which would include submitting a complaint to the State Ethics Commission. If the State Ethics Commission determines malfeasance, they would present the complaint to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Wirth expressed skepticism that commissioners would want to serve for a six-year term, and asked McQueen to reconsider making the removal process.
“I’m not a big fan of putting the ethics commission in the middle of this,” Wirth said. He added the state constitution already lays out a procedure to remove members of governing boards, and lawmakers shouldn’t create a new process.
Additionally, high turnover and sudden vacancies on the board have hampered its ability to meet, as the board did not have enough people to conduct its business.
“There’s been a lot of turnover in the commission and the appointments haven’t been made particularly quickly,” McQueen said, adding that he hopes the six-year terms will mean that a governor will never replace the whole board.
Lujan Grisham’s office did not comment either way on the proposal, saying the governor’s staff are “collaborating” with the sponsors and agency, Jodi McGinnis Porter wrote in a statement Monday, and are reviewing the proposed bill’s final language.
Rep. Susuan Herrera (D-Embudo) applauded McQueen, saying she had been waiting for these kinds of reforms.
“When it comes to the Fish and Game Commission, we do a lot of talking, but it seems like nothing ever changes,” she said. “I think we do need a new form of government and to expand the arc of the work.”