WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, May 3, 2007
Otero County Ranchers, Farmers Complain About Elk

WildEarth Guardians opposes the permitted depredation hunt
Contact: Albuquerque Journal

Alamogordo - Otero County ranchers and farmers want the state to pay them for damages to forage, fences and crops caused by elk and to let them shoot some of the animals.

Ranchers also have asked the County Commission to demand action from the state Game and Fish Department.

Rancher Charles Walker, talking to commissioners at a work session Wednesday, said ranchers' pleas for compensation for damages or for more hunting permits for landowners have been ignored.

The forage belongs to the rangers under grazing allotments, Walker said. He contended the government's refusal to either thin the herds or repay allotment holders for damages represents an illegal "taking."

Commission Chairman Doug Moore said elk are using up to 80 percent of the forage on some allotments. Those who hold grazing allotments have been required to reduce their herds by 20 percent, but elk hunting has not increased, he said.

The county staff is working on ordinances to help address the problems, Moore said. He expects them to come before the commission in about 30 days.

Ron Moore, assistant chief of operations for the Game and Fish Department's southeast area in Roswell, said in a telephone interview that the agency issued a permit for a "depredation hunt" to a rancher in the Cloudcroft area.

Ranchers Gene and Carrie Green had rejected the state's offer to build a fence because a spring their cattle use for water would lie outside its boundaries, said Roy Hayes, the agency's chief of operations in Roswell.

Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians opposes the permit and the proposal to let other ranchers shoot elk.

"We are appalled that our game commission would allow one grazing permittee to dictate state wildlife policy," said Melissa Hailey, director of the environmental group's grazing reform program.

The depredation hunt will allow the Greens to designate who can hunt. The state will issue the permits.

The department has approved permits to kill 20 elk between now and the end of June, but only a few hunters at a time will be issued permits, Hayes said.

It may not be necessary to use all 20 permits, he said.

"The idea is to kind of harass them out of the area," Hayes said.

Game officials went to the ranch for five or six hours a night for several weeks last year to scare elk with bird shot, but the effort didn't work, Ron Moore said.

Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission