Bullock's water claims inaccurate

In a recently published editorial, Montana’s Gov. Steve Bullock makes some strongly worded and completely inaccurate accusations about the laws surrounding public access to waters in New Mexico.

Bullock is incorrect in his statement that recently passed legislation “upended a 1945 Supreme Court ruling.” Actually, the legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Susana Martinez back in April, did nothing but codify New Mexico Department of Game and Fish regulations that had been in effect for more than 30 years.

No one in New Mexico should have been confused by this legislation.

In our state, you have always needed a landowner’s permission to access waters that are located on private property. If an angler lost their favorite fishing hole due to this legislation, it’s because they were in violation of Game and Fish law in the first place.

There are very sound reasons that New Mexico cannot be Montana. First and foremost is water. Montana has a lot of it and we have very little. It is not feasible for New Mexico to manage water according to the “high water mark” like they do in Montana. Many of New Mexico’s waterways are seasonal and the flow is dependent on torrential rain events. There are a significant number of waterways that are completely dry for most of the year.

It does not make sense to give the public access to dry ditch banks located on private property just because they are technically considered a waterway.

To many people in Montana, it may seen odd that the guided fishing industry in New Mexico would be such a staunch advocate for needing landowner permission to access waters on private land but, again, New Mexico is not Montana.

About 70 percent of New Mexico’s waters are already on public lands. This legislation addressed only the 30 percent of waters on private land – and really only about 10 percent of that are waters that can be fished.

Over the past 30 years, the guided fishing industry has worked closely with landowners to develop riparian areas and establish world-class fishing on waters located on private lands.

In New Mexico, the quality of the fishing in waters on private land far surpasses that on the public land. The responsible stewardship efforts implemented and paid for by our private landowners should not be undermined.

Allowing unfettered access to 10 percent of New Mexico’s waterways when 70 percent is already accessible to the public would not be beneficial to the resource.

— Kerrie Romero is executive director of New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides