The state constitution says all waters in New Mexico belong to the public. In 1945, the state Supreme Court ruled that all waters should be open to the public for recreational use, provided the public does not trespass across private land to reach them. Yet for decades, landowners have closed portions of the Pecos, Rio Chama and other streams with the support of NMDGF. We believe this question of whether landowners and NMDGF can prohibit access to a public resource is a major issue for New ...

The State Game Commission did not vote on anything substantial during its special meeting Monday morning, but there were fireworks nevertheless. The commission had called the meeting to discuss “litigation,” but never explained which. Monday was the deadline for the commission to respond to the lawsuit filed by NM BHA and other groups seeking to strike down the commission’s regulation that allows private landowners to ban the public from public waters. The commission has also been sued by ...

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   Published posthumously in 1949, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac is as close to a bible for conservationists as any work can be. In it he discusses things like a “land ethic,” which simply says: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” He reflects on predator control in service of better ...

As COVID-19 wages war on civilization, a look into my chest freezer and the watering of my garden gives me hope and solace in a time of uncertainty. I do not consider myself a “prepper,” but I am certainly well prepared.  Over the last seven years, I have invested heavily in the process of procuring my own food. My hobbies of hunting, fly-fishing and gardening fill my freezer and the bellies of myself and loved ones. In times like these, my bounty eases my anxieties. This wasn’t always the ...

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   Where do you turn today to learn the truth about Theodore Roosevelt? To his heir as president, Donald Trump, whose secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, asserts that Roosevelt protected public lands then so they can be exploited now? Or to a source who seems better read on the subject, Miley Cyrus, who flashes a Roosevelt quote tattooed on her forearm in a music video? Trust a historian. ...