NEWS
More Game Commission information
Click here to read the Department of Game and Fish proposal for consolidating hunting, fishing and trapping licenses and stamps, as presented to the State Game Commission on July 14.
Click here to listen to the seven-minute exchange between Silver City hunter Larry McDaniel and Commission Chairman Jim McClintic (also on the recording are Commissioner Tom Arvas and Assistant Director Pat Block.) Click here to read the transcript.
Please note that McDaniel is correct. Department figures show that E-PLUS landowners received more than 40 percent of the elk allocation each of the last three years. For the 2009-10 license year, the department gave E-PLUS landowners 18,846 authorizations (45.8 percent) while putting 22,294 licenses (54.2 percent) in the Big Game Draw.
Also for clarification, Chairman McClintic says 150,000 people applied for 47,000 licenses. There were 150,000 applications: Several hunters apply for multiple species, resulting in multiple applications per applicant. The number of applicants is close to 91,000.
Chairman McClintic also tells McDaniel that Montana has “137 times more antelope” than New Mexico. It isn’t clear where that information is from, but it does not appear to be correct. The NM Department of Game and Fish web site does not have information about New Mexico’s antelope population. But Montana, according to recent antelope population data on the Montana web site, has about 216,000 animals. If that’s 137 times more than New Mexico, New Mexico would have fewer than 1,600 antelope. Currently NMDGF offers some 6,000 antelope hunting licenses a year.