NMWF Annual Report 2015

OUR MISSION: New York Cares meets pressing Our Mission community needs by mobilizing caring

To inspire New Mexicans to conserve public New Yorkers in volunteer service. landscapes, watersheds, and wildlife.

Our Story

The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has been standing up for the issues that matter to the sportsmen and women of New Mexico for over a century. Founded in 1914 and based on the teachings of Aldo Leopold, we rely on science and the North American Model of Wildlife Management to guide our work.

Our outdoor heritage is an integral part of New Mexican culture. As the only organization in the state representing sportsmen and women, we are working tirelessly to protect this outdoor way of life. We fight to protect access to public lands, conserve our wildlife, and defend our waters.

Whether we are working with elected officials on crucial bills, educating the public on land access issues, or organizing meetings throughout the state, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation is on the ground working to protect our outdoor heritage.

Making an Impact 2015 was a banner year for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation - we held our first public lands rally, fought bills that were detrimental to wildlife and outdoor enthusiasts, and played an integral role in new national monument designations.

IMPACT

More than 300 attendees from all over the state showed up at the Santa Fe Capitol in January to stand up for public lands.

Land and Habitat Conservation Valles Caldera Despite strong opposition from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the State Game Commission, and powerful national organizations, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation staff led a coalition of sportsmen, partner organizations, and community leaders to ensure the Valles Caldera National Preserve was protected and accessible to the public.

Coalition Building Working with our partners and Senators Martin Heinrich and Thomas Udall, we secured a huge victory for the Valles Caldera in 2015. NMWF published Outdoor Reporter articles, op-eds, and social media stories that aggressively engaged local sportsmen and women on the benefits of the management transfer to the National Park Service.

The Valles Caldera permanent protection legislation and Columbine Hondo Wilderness designation were included in the public lands package that passed as an amendment to the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.

Valles Caldera management was officially transferred to the National Park Service in October 2015.

Over many years and painstaking, methodical, on-the-ground effort, NMWF was a pivotal force in garnering broad-based local support (especially with the traditional acequia, grazing and land grant communities) for the 46,000-acre Columbine Hondo Wilderness. At the finish line, staff attended Sen. Heinrich’s post-designation field trip in the fall and generated considerable media coverage, an op-ed, Facebook posts and Tweets and an article in the Outdoor Reporter. Columbine-Hondo Wilderness is now permanently protected through wilderness designation.

President’s Message The New Mexico Wildlife Federation went through a major restructuring in 2015, starting with an in-depth rebuild of its administrative and financial operations and continuing with the adoption of modernized bylaws and a massive membership drive.

That was all going on while the organization continued its work on hunters’ and anglers’ behalf, particularly on hunter-angler access, wildlife management issues and long-term habitat and watershed protections.

Administratively, we updated our staff and board policies, our filings with government agencies, and our financial controls and monitoring – all necessary planks in the platform that supports the NMWF mission.

The bylaws update completed a nearly decade-long transition from an organization run entirely by volunteers to one operated

by a full-time, paid staff. The new bylaws essentially shifted the long-unexercised authorities of the general membership to the Board and made official what had been actual practice for a number of years.

Our initial membership drive brought in approximately 16,300 members by year’s end, the great majority of them long-time supporters who took the next step by accepting our offer of free membership.

That drive set the pattern for drives to come; NMWF membership will continue to swell.

Those membership numbers may in the long run be the most significant accomplishment of all. New Mexican sportsmen and women, not so long ago, were a powerful force in this state, and can – will – be again.

- Board President, John Crenshaw

Pecos Wilderness The New Mexico Wildlife Federation also played a critical role in the ongoing Pecos Wilderness expansion campaign. NMWF sportsmen coordinator Max Trujillo was recently called a “legendary western organizer” by the PEW Foundation for his tireless efforts with not only the Pecos Expansion, but also getting the Rio Grande Del Norte and Columbine Hondo Wilderness designations over the finish line. The Pecos expansion campaign is a massive undertaking that will continue to consume a great deal of time for our entire team into the foreseeable future. Like RGDN and Columbine Hondo, NMWF’s on-the-ground efforts will play a pivotal role in making this land conservation initiative a reality.

Forest

and

Restoration

Act

NMWF staff began a public vetting process for Senator Heinrich’s Forest and Restoration Act. NMWF has tentatively identified approximately 100,000 acres in four watersheds in Taos County that could be proposed to become legislatively designated special management areas. They would have a specific habitat/ watershed restoration mandate, large areas of permanently designated non-motorized wildlife refuge (HPA) and would be permanently protected from mineral extraction of any kind.

Continuing Efforts Post-designation monument planning continued throughout 2015. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation now has a seat at the table for both the Rio Grande Del Norte and Organ Mountains Desert Peaks planning process to ensure that New Mexico sportsmen and women have a strong influence on how both these new national monuments are managed.

The USDA Forest Planning process – a 20-year management planning/directive for each of our five national forests – was and continues to be underway. Public meetings and then a thorough process of written scoping comments began in 2015 and continues today. NMWF is actively involved in the process.

NMWF continued to also play a pivotal role to stop the proposed Gila Diversion project.

The organization sponsored a field trip with Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Mike Connor.

Mr. Connor ultimately controls the Bureau of Reclamation’s processes as they relate to the decision-making process with the proposed diversion project. This trip was a critical step in continuing to move forward in our campaign to stop the Gila Diversion project.

Legislative Roundup

NMWF ushered in 2015 by organizing New Mexico’s first public lands rally at the state capitol. With more than 300 attendees from around the state, it was a remarkably diverse cross section of New Mexican citizenry - bridging ethnic, age, gender, and political gaps to resoundingly reject any mass giveaways or sale of our prized public lands. This rally established our pattern of organizing for sportsmen and women in surrounding states.

The New Mexico Wildlife Federation is

quickly becoming the go-to source and non-profit leader for public lands seizure information and organizing NMWF continued to be the exclusive sportsmen legislative firewall preventing numerous bills detrimental to wildlife and sportsmen from being signed into law. This took the exceptional effort of president John Crenshaw and executive director Garrett VeneKlasen. NMWF has become a force to be reckoned with in the legislative arena with a power and presence that

IMPACT

The sportsmen and women of New Mexico were given a venue to express their concerns for the first time at the Public Lands Rally.

Access to our Lands The New Mexico Wildlife Federation closely monitored access issues on both state and federal lands throughout the year. Site-specific access concerns as well as accessrelated policy are ongoing priorities of concern for NMWF.

New Mexico State Land Office With the election of Aubrey Dunn as Commissioner of Public Lands, NMWF faced multiple challenges with the State Land Office in 2015. The one of greatest concern is the annual NMDGF/ SLO lease for sportsmen’s access to state trust lands.

NMWF engaged sportsmen and media around the state to try and persuade Commissioner Dunn to stand down on his excessive fee increase, which could have run as high as $5 million annually and eventually settled at $1 million for one year. Access to state trust lands, potential privatization of state trust lands and exclusive leases that could exclude public sportsmen from tracts of state trust lands were remain issues of great concern.

Mineral Development

Although NMWF receives almost no funding to address mineral development impacts on habitat and wildlife corridors, the organization still frequently engaged on the subject. NMWF co-produced scoping comments in 2015 addressing oil and gas expansion in the four corners region.

State Game Commission NMWF has staff and often board members present and participating in every State Game Commission meeting to represent sportsmen’s and wildlife interests. The organization consistently weighs in on the side of science-based, apolitical game management that is consistent with the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

The Commission this past year appeared to be unduly influenced by extractive industries and livestock interests: NMWF has particularly challenged Commission decisions to introduce year-round trapping of cougars on private and state trust lands, and its rejection of the Statewide Wildlife Action Plan, a nongame management planning document, and advocated for the substantial federal funding available to implement the plan.

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish NMWF tirelessly engages the NMDGF on myriad issues, supporting or challenging the agency as appropriate to the issue. Defending the Game Protection Fund against legislative raids remains a top priority, as does collaborating with NMDGF staff to pass agency-sponsored legislation that’s in wildlife’s and sportsmen’s interests.

Reform of the E-Plus system, ungulate depredation issues, predator management, trapping, native trout restoration, mule deer restoration, and species-specific habitat restoration are also of paramount importance.

Education NMWF wrapped up four separate public school “Land Ethic” courses in 2015. Four schools, one each in Taos and Questa and two in Belen had NMWF-funded STEM-based courses.

New York Cares 2012 New Mexico Wildlife Federation 2015

Our Staff Staff Executive Director Garrett Vene Klasen

Outreach Coordinator Max Trujillo

Deputy Director Todd Leahy

Office Manager Susan Calt

Communications Director Susan Torres Community Relations and Education Director Andrew Black Finance Coordinator Wendy Sandidge

“The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has been an invaluable partner in countless conservation efforts throughout the state. I applaud the organization’s steadfast commitment to enhancing opportunities for sportsmen and improving access to public lands. I will continue to stand with NMWF as they work to ensure all our kids and grandkids will be catching trout and chasing mule deer on our public lands for many years to come.”

— United States Senator Martin Heinrich

New Mexico Wildlife Federation 2015

Board of Directors President John Crenshaw Vice President Bennet Brown Treasurer William Bramble Secretary Michael Murphy

Directors at Large Jason Amaro Jim Bates Don Faraone Steve Henry Bruce Wilder Blair Wolf Odes Armijo-Caster John McCawley JoAnn Melcher

New Mexico Wildlife Federation Financial Report 2015

Statement of Activities Unrestricted

Temporarily Restricted

Total

$402,045

$44,400

$446,445

Support: Grants Donations Total Support

81,409 $483,454

23,438 $44,400

$527,854

Support: Revenues: O Support: Support: perating Expenses: Program Service Fees Contracts

$128,121

Membership

15,911

Cell tower lease

10,633

Other income

(197)

Advertising

2,809

Interest - note receivable

8,869

Investment income

(870)

Satisfaction of program restrictions

118,455

(16,000)

Total Revenue

$283,731

(16,000)

$165,276

Total Support Revenue

$767,185

$28,400

$693,130

Expenses: Program Services General and administrative Fundraising expense Total Expenses

$466,814 260,217 57,238 $784,269

New York Cares 2012 New Mexico Wildlife Federation 2015

Our Staff Sponsors The New Mexico Wildlife Federation thanks the following foundations for their generous support: Fish and Wildlife Service - Division of Bird Habitat and Conservation North American Wetlands Conservation Act Wyss Foundation Western Energy Project Western Conservation Foundation Western Environmental Law Center Turner Foundation Thaw Charitable Trust Still Water Foundation New Mexico Community Foundation National Wildlife Federation McCune Charitable Foundation The New Mexico Wildlife Federation thanks the following members for their generous support: Brandon Wynn Peter Lupsha Lew Carpenter Cosmos Dohner