AR-News(US-NM) Rancher Considers State's Elk Solution

[jim robertson]

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=7&ArticleID=28783

Rancher Considers State's Elk Solution

By WES SMALLING | The New Mexican


"If the Game Department doesn't work something out with Mr. Garcia, we'll 
keep it up all summer (shooting elk)."
DAVID SANCHEZ OF HERNANDEZ
regarding written proposal
by the Department of Game and Fish - Kathy De La Torre | The New Mexican
A Rio Arriba County landowner whose ranch manager shot nearly 20 elk in May 
for eating grass on his property is close to negotiating a deal with the 
state that could avert future elk slaughters.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish northwest area chief, Luke 
Shelby, on Thursday mailed a written proposal to the landowner, Joe Garcia 
Jr., who already has a second "kill permit" in hand.

The agency offered to provide an elk-proof fence around the 997-acre ranch 
near Brazos, plus pay the owner $5,000 for allowing elk to graze on his land 
over the next two years.

Garcia's ranch manager, David Sanchez of Hernandez, said Wednesday that he 
planned to start shooting more elk next week, but the plan is on hold while 
Garcia considers the department's offer.

"I wanted the department to put it in writing and I still have some people 
to consult about it," Garcia said Thursday.

A state law commonly referred to as the Jennings Law, after its author, 
state Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, allows landowners to ask the department 
for a permit to shoot elk that are damaging their properties.

Before issuing a kill permit, the department must offer at least three 
remedies that might solve the problem, such as fencing or noisemakers. But 
if the landowner rejects the offers, the law requires the department to 
honor the request for a kill permit.

Prior to this spring's elk slayings, Garcia had rejected offers of fencing, 
noisemakers, flagging and other remedies, Shelby said.

The law doesn't allow the landowner and his employees to use the meat, so 
most of the carcasses went to waste. A game warden was able to retrieve a 
few of the dead elk before they rotted and that meat was sold, Shelby said.

Sanchez said the hay crop on the Chavez Creek Ranch is worth about $200,000 
per year, but the elk, which are managed in trust by the state, were eating 
it up before it could be harvested.

The ranch had received elk-hunting permits worth several thousand dollars to 
help offset losses, but this year the state cut back on hunting permits.

After the elk shootings were reported in The New Mexican and elsewhere, 
State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons removed Sanchez from the State Land Office 
Agricultural Advisory Board and Gov. Bill Richardson gave Sanchez the boot 
from the State Livestock Board.

"Lyons had fun kicking me off a board I was supposedly on and the governor 
was pressured to do the same," Sanchez said this week. "Everybody had fun 
with it. But here we are with the same problems and no resolution.

"This is Round 2. If the Game Department doesn't work something out with Mr. 
Garcia, we'll keep it up all summer (shooting elk)."

Oscar Simpson, president of the New Mexico chapter of the National Wildlife 
Federation, has condemned the killings and said ranchers are using the 
Jennings Law to extort money from the state in the form of forage leases and 
valuable elk-hunting permits.

Simpson also said he believes elk are forced to search for forage on private 
lands because the state's public lands have been too heavily grazed by 
livestock.

Fencing the Chavez Creek Ranch would cost $128,000, Shelby said, plus 
unknown amounts for surveying, gates, maintenance and other expenses.

The money would come from hunting fees earmarked for the Big Game 
Depredation Damage Fund, established by the state Legislature in 2001.

New Mexico residents pay an extra $3 fee for every big-game license they 
buy; non-resident hunters pay $10.

Since the depredation fund was started, the state has completed five fences 
and is about to finish two more within the next couple weeks.

This year, the department is spending $370,000 on fencing, said depredation 
coordinator Brandon Griffith.

Forage leases are capped at $2,500 per year for a maximum of two years. The 
cap was put in place by the State Game Commission in 2001 after the 
department negotiated a lease with Sanchez for $52,000 over two years on his 
own property near Chama. The department also plans to build a fence for 
Sanchez around his alfalfa pasture this year, Griffith said.



Reader Comments

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Posted: Friday, June 20, 2003
by: Bobby Garcia

I second Mr. Wilson's comments. All of these ranchers want the "government 
off their back" while they always have the biggest hand out in the welfare 
line. Everything they do is subsidized; all so they can continue to pursue 
an antiquated dream of being a "cowboy". News flash guys, our beef, for the 
most part, is raised in stock pens that are basically cow factories. Hardly 
anybody is buying your two cows that take 300 acres to graze on. Find a real 
job and stop using my tax dollars to play dress up cowboy.

Posted: Friday, June 20, 2003
by: Peter Wilson

This is the crookedest sounding deal I've heard in a long time. Mr Sanchez 
has been taking advantage of New Mexicans, killing our elk, and manupulating 
his influence to get a sweetheart forage deal.

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