New Mexico Pronghorn Privatization

[abqbw]

If you thought privatization of New Mexico’s elk was bad. Check out the level of privatization of New Mexico’s pronghorn tags. 67% of New Mexico’s pronghorn tags are privatized. A small percentage (176, 2.6% of the 6,814 tags) are privatized through the outfitter draw set-aside. The rest are through the unlimited private land pronghorn tags.

Only 31.5% of NM pronghorn tags are obtained by a New Mexico resident by public draw.

Note: By “public draw” I mean only unguided draw. Some very small percentage of the outfitter draw set-aside is resident. But since contract with a private individual, an outfitter, is required to draw an outfitter tag I think that legitimately an outfitter draw set aside tag is not a public tag. Even if you improperly lump all outfitter tags in with all unguided resident tags it only adds up to 34.1% of all pronghorn tags.

Only 96, 1.4% of NM pronghorn tags are unguided nonresident draw. The outfitter draw set aside is 1.8 times greater than the unguided nonresident draw set aside.

New Mexico’s tag privatization hoses both resident and nonresident public tag hunters. Combined we only receive less than 1/3 of NM pronghorn tags.

If you live in a state with pronghorn can you imagine less that 1/3 of your pronghorn tags being public/resident ?

 

[abqbw]

Stay tuned. I am assisting the New Mexico Wildlife Federation in generating reports on the private/public and resident/nonresident big game tag allocations in New Mexico for all big game species. Over the past couple of years we have focused on Elk and EPLUS. But as you can see, our big game tags for the other species are heavily privatized too. Generating this info is a tedious process because the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish does not make the information public.

We must make public information requests in order to obtain the data. For instance the analysis provided in this thread does not include the resident/nonresident breakdown of the outfitter draw set aside or the private land tags because NMDGF does not make that information public. In fact, it took me about 6 hours to tease the data in the attached table out of the published draw odds report and the harvest data reports that NMDGF publishes. When you see the tag data in our Take Back Your Elk reports (and the attached pronghorn tag table) you can see why NMDGF does its devil best to hide this information from the public.

For years I have unsuccessfully begged the NM Game Commission to compel the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to publish an annual report that details the private/public and resident/nonresident breakdown of all big game licenses sold. But hey, if they want us to keep generating reports with our opinions on the matter and them, fine.

 

[Treeshark]

First I catch you fibbing about the elk, then I come over here and see these whoppers you’re telling us about antelope…

Yikes, what a day!

 

[abqbw]

First I catch you fibbing about the elk, then I come over here and see these whoppers you’re telling us about antelope…

Yikes, what a day!

You are just trolling. Feel free to post your alternative numbers. Back up your statements.

 

[Bigjay73]

First I catch you fibbing about the elk, then I come over here and see these whoppers you’re telling us about antelope…

Yikes, what a day!

Elaborate a little, I'm clueless about NM

 

[Treeshark]

@abqbw uses some very ”generous” definitions of what is an NR tag to prove a point (see the Take Back Your Elk).

 

[abqbw]

@abqbw uses some very ”generous” definitions of what is an NR tag to prove a point (see the Take Back Your Elk).

Please stop. You are being foolish.

 

[Treeshark]

Please stop. You are being foolish.

You are being untruthful. Residents of NM have every opportunity to obtain many of the “NR” tags your complaining about if they so choose.

 

[rmyoung1]

You are being untruthful. Residents of NM have every opportunity to obtain many of the “NR” tags your complaining about if they so choose.

But I think that’s why he’s using the term “privatized,” no? The tags aren’t available in a public drawing by and large. There’s a landowner/outfitter gatekeeper involved. His point is valid.

 

[5yearcoueshunter]

For those who don't know: Pronghorn, Deer, Barbary and Oryx have UNLIMITED tags for private land. So you just go buy your license, pick a unit and hunt date/code, make sure you have written permission and then your good to go. You can only hunt Private land on these OTC tags. My suspicion is there are plenty of land locked public lands that get used with these tags, but that's all speculation, I have no proof of that.

Quick math based on 22/23 harvest reports:

60% of all Pronghorn tags were Private land only
13% of all Oryx tags were Private land only
10% of all Barbary tags were Private land only
18% of all Deer tags were Private land only

To be fair, the largest herds of Pronghorn in NM are on the Eastern side of the state which are a high % private.

I think solely focusing on what % are going to NR misses the point and just causes division. Yes, if NRs were getting a higher than desired % of public tags, then that's worth discussion. However in NM I think it's more about management of the states wildlife and what is the right/fair way to balance the needs of landowners and ALL the state residents who are the beneficiaries of that wildlife.

 

[abqbw]

For those who don't know: Pronghorn, Deer, Barbary and Oryx have UNLIMITED tags for private land. So you just go buy your license, pick a unit and hunt date/code, make sure you have written permission and then your good to go. You can only hunt Private land on these OTC tags. My suspicion is there are plenty of land locked public lands that get used with these tags, but that's all speculation, I have no proof of that.

Quick math based on 22/23 harvest reports:

60% of all Pronghorn tags were Private land only
13% of all Oryx tags were Private land only
10% of all Barbary tags were Private land only
18% of all Deer tags were Private land only

To be fair, the largest herds of Pronghorn in NM are on the Eastern side of the state which are a high % private.

I think solely focusing on what % are going to NR misses the point and just causes division. Yes, if NRs were getting a higher than desired % of public tags, then that's worth discussion. However in NM I think it's more about management of the states wildlife and what is the right/fair way to balance the needs of landowners and ALL the state residents who are the beneficiaries of that wildlife.

You make a good point that I try but often fail to elaborate. It is not the fact that so many tags in NM are nonresident that is disturbing per se. It is what causes it. Privatization. When a tag is sold in a private market to the highest bidder tye 300 million or so nonresidents are going to swamp the 2 million NM residents in the bidding war.

I have often said that a nonresident drawing a tag in our public unguided draw is far preferable than a resident skipping the draw and buying a tag from a private landowner.


Honestly I wouldn’t mind having one of the highest nonresident draw quotas in the west in NM if we didn’t have private land and outfitter draw set aside tags. It’s not about nonresidents (within reason). It is about the abhorrent wealth based allocation of hunting opportunity in NM.

 

[abqbw]

For those who don't know: Pronghorn, Deer, Barbary and Oryx have UNLIMITED tags for private land. So you just go buy your license, pick a unit and hunt date/code, make sure you have written permission and then your good to go. You can only hunt Private land on these OTC tags. My suspicion is there are plenty of land locked public lands that get used with these tags, but that's all speculation, I have no proof of that.

Quick math based on 22/23 harvest reports:

60% of all Pronghorn tags were Private land only
13% of all Oryx tags were Private land only
10% of all Barbary tags were Private land only
18% of all Deer tags were Private land only

To be fair, the largest herds of Pronghorn in NM are on the Eastern side of the state which are a high % private.

I think solely focusing on what % are going to NR misses the point and just causes division. Yes, if NRs were getting a higher than desired % of public tags, then that's worth discussion. However in NM I think it's more about management of the states wildlife and what is the right/fair way to balance the needs of landowners and ALL the state residents who are the beneficiaries of that wildlife.

How did you get the harvest reports sorted to calculate the R/NR division? When I covert from the PDFs they post to spreadsheets they columns blow up. It’s a ton of work to manually correct the data columns and rows.

I love the fact that you go through the trouble to compile the data. It is the only way to evaluate the effect of tag allocation policies.