The state Game and Fish Commission approved a controversial boundary change among three big-game hunting units in Rio Arriba County Oct. 2 after no opponents showed up at the Commission’s meeting in Alamogordo.
Game and Fish Department spokesman Dan Williams said the boundary change was done “to simplify things,” and no member of the public spoke for or against the action.
“It passed unanimously,” he said.
The change involves two boundary shifts: the western edge of Unit 51 was moved farther westward from Highway 84 to the Rio Chama, and part of the northern edge of Unit 51 was moved northward, from State Road 111 to Highway 64. Both shifts increase the size of Unit 51 and decrease, respectively, the sizes of neighboring units 5B and 52.
Unit 51 is now bordered on the west by the Rio Chama, with Highway 64 on the north and State Roads 554 and 110 on the south. Unit 5B is a smaller unit to the west of 51 — smaller still now that its lands between Highway 84 and the Rio Chama have been transferred to Unit 51. A Department release states the elk herds within the boundary region moved freely between both units, so the change allows “for a similar hunting strategy for the entire herd unit.”
It also states that hunter dissatisfaction was rising within Unit 5B, due to the herd’s regular migration out of that unit.
Unit 52 sits north of 51 and extends to the Colorado border. The Department argued for changing Unit 52’s southern boundary on the grounds that it would be simpler and more recognizable if it followed Highway 64 rather than jutting south on State Road 111.
County Planning and Zoning Committee member and County Clerk-elect Moises Morales said he’s opposed to the move. Though the Department hasn’t indicated an intention to reduce the overall number of permits in the region, he said the Department is trying to help elk populations, which will hurt small farmers and ranchers.
“There’s too many elk in both units,” Morales said. “The problem has gotten worse in the past 10 years.”
Morales said elk have eaten farmers’ crops and broken fences, and hunting permits have gotten too expensive for local families to afford.
Blanche Schalla, of Chama, helps run an outfitting business with her husband. She said she isn’t too concerned about the change.
“We sit right in the middle,” she said. “For us it would be just fine.”
Schalla said a Department decision to reduce permits would have more of an effect on their business. She said they buy many of their permits from ranchers, and prices would go up if fewer were available.
Robert Ball, of Chama, also runs an outfitting business. He said he only uses private lands, so the boundary change won’t make much of a difference for him. But he said the Commission is out of touch.
“Any time they change boundaries, it does make a difference,” he said. “That creates problems.”
Game and Fish Commission member and County Commission Chairman Alfredo Montoya did not immediately return calls seeking comment.