NM Wildlife Federation: 2025 Legislative Session Priorities

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on December 1, 2024
- 9:17 am

JESSE W. DEUBEL
Executive Director
New Mexico Wildlife Federation

It’s hard to believe that 2024 is about to end. It seems like we just wrapped up the 2024 legislative session and now we are only six weeks away from starting the 2025 session.

The New Mexico Wildlife Federation (NMWF) will be working on some very important wildlife-related bills this year.

Our priorities this session include the following:

- - - - Reforming the structure of the NM State Game Commission;
      - Securing a substantial appropriation to fund the implementation of NM’s Wildlife Corridors Action Plan;
      - Expanding the state’s wanton waste statute to include bear, cougar and javelina;
      - Adjusting hunting and fishing license fees to increase funding for the NM Department of Game and Fish.

New Mexico hunting and fishing license fees have not been raised by the NM State Legislature since 2005. Prices of goods and services have changed drastically in the last 20 years, and the license revenue to NMDG&F hasn’t kept up. It’s imperative for hunters and anglers that New Mexico has a state wildlife agency that is properly funded. Even with an increase, the cost of a license will remain a very small investment in relation to the overall cost of hunting and fishing.

Fortunately, in New Mexico we have ample public land, so paying for access to a private place to use that license is optional. Access to our public lands is something NMWF fights hard for every day. Just last month, we prevailed in a lawsuit protecting public access to the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

Sadly, the very existence of public lands is undergoing a direct attack all across the West. The legal case brought by the state of Utah to the Supreme Court of the United States threatens to strip every American of lands we all collectively own. Hunting and angling has always been a huge part of my life. My ability to continue to do these things depends on my ability to continue to access public lands and waters. This is the case for countless New Mexicans.

The New Mexico Wildlife Federation will remain on the front lines advocating for our wildlife and the people who depend on it.