Gregg Fulfer Resigns From NM State Wildlife Commission
Gregg Fulfer has resigned from the state wildlife commission.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Fulfer, a former Republican state senator from Jal, to the commission in June 2022.
“I didn’t have any particular reason other than it was slowing my business down, and I’m getting prepared for a little retiring,” Fulfer said Monday. He said he resigned from the commission at its May 26 meeting.
Fulfer praised Mike Sloane, director of the wildlife department, and Stewart Liley, chief department biologist, for their work. “You’re trying to balance everybody, the different things they have going, and it’s just a huge balancing act,” he said of the department leadership.
The New Mexico State Legislature last year expanded the commission’s responsibilities over nongame species and ordered the name of the department to change. starting next month. from the NM Department of Game and Fish to the NM Department of Wildlife.
Fulfer said he’s not a big fan of the move to expand the department’s responsibilities. “I hope they are able to contain that to the wildlife and not make it a big interference in game management itself,” he told the NMWF.
Fulfer served in the state Senate from 2018-2020. During this tenure, he voted against measures to develop a wildlife corridors plan and voted against a statewide ban on coyote-killing contests. Both bills passed.
Fulfer’s departure leaves the seven-member commission with two vacancies. Lujan Grisham last year dismissed former Commissioner Sabrina Pack of Grant County after disclosures that she had been involved in a marketing campaign pushing to reduce protections for the Mexican gray wolf.
Earlier this year, Lujan Grisham appointed Santa Fe lawyer Kyle S. Harwood to the commission. His law practice focuses on land and water law and he’s an avid outdoorsman, angler and hunter.
Harwood and his wife Elege have three sons. At recent commission meetings, Harwood has expressed interest in encouraging youth hunting programs.
