The State Game Commission is finally up to full membership, though with half the commissioners either brand new or relatively new to the job, their April meeting in Silver City was more about bringing them up to speed than accomplishing any business. Since the death of Commissioner David Soules in 2021, the governor’s dismissal of Commissioner Jeremy Vesbach and the subsequent resignation of Commissioner Roberta Salazar Henry, the seven-member commission has been far short of full. At times ...

Fifth in a series Many private landowners in New Mexico with elk on their property are eligible to participate in EPLUS. Not all of them qualify – they first have to exhibit verifiable benefits to elk. But those who do qualify receive thousands of authorizations to sell, give away or not even use. Where those hunts actually occur is a key question, however. For a program titled the “Elk Private Land Use System,” it seems odd to many New Mexico hunters that a large number of EPLUS tags can ...

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham this week removed State Game Commissioner Jeremy Vesbach, apparently because he has repeatedly stood up for New Mexico resident hunters and anglers. She notified him Tuesday morning that he was out, even though he still had a year left in his term. “I think the governor was looking for someone who would ride the fence,” Vesbach told NMBHA. “That’s not me.” Since he was appointed in 2019, Vesbach has been a fierce advocate for New Mexico hunters and anglers. He has ...

Fourth in a series To understand how a small number of landowners controls a third of the elk hunts in New Mexico, you have to start on the ground – where the elk are most concentrated versus where they are fewer and farther between. We discussed previously that EPLUS splits the state into three management zones, and that the majority of elk are found in the Primary Zone. In that zone, elk tags are divided between the public draw and EPLUS landowners through a complex formula, but it comes ...

Third in a series Almost every state in the West has a private land hunting program for elk – Arizona being the exception – but it’s hard to imagine any program more complicated than EPLUS. We’ve posted a copy of the EPLUS Rule in our EPLUS Library, and we encourage hunters to read it just to see how difficult it is for the average person to understand. But to save your eyesight we’ll do a guided tour of the rule to explain how EPLUS works. Unfortunately, EPLUS is so complicated that even ...