New Mexico Sportsmen and Conservationist Alliance

10/23/2026

Randy Newberg, host of the Fresh Tracks and Hunt Talk podcasts, penned the latest commentary in Outdoor News where he says hunting and fishing need your voice and your vote this November.
“Ask where (politicians) stand on access, clean water, wildlife management and the future of hunting and fishing,” Newberg writes. "Don’t assume you know the answers based on a party label."
Read the column by following the link in the comments.

10/14/2026

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/santa-fe-new-mexican/20261014/281573772662750

WWASHINGTON hen the U.S. Forest Ser­vice opened 947 acres in a remote sec­tion of west­ern Col­or­ado to com­mer­cial log­ging in July, offi­cials expec­ted at least a few com­pan­ies to jump at the oppor­tun­ity. Not one did. None had bid a year...

10/12/2026

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/albuquerque-metro/4-investigates-new-mexico-ag-finds-outfitter-tag-set-aside-unconstitutional/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_KOB_4&fbclid=IwY2xjawU5x6hleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mBWJyaWQRMW5qVzJwcldDbjk1bnZ4VzhzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe9DBaAPfvGFEjhdtzC449KHzwFcNtorxXOgxHJxIGACDsP2DxboUQt_d_OWE_aem_1EwsjH-VTSpJnDzDCivMVg

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has found that the state’s outfitter set-aside program for hunting licenses violates the state constitution, putting pressure on lawmakers to reconsider how hunting opportunities are distributed.

10/10/2026

https://projectupland.com/grouse-species/blue-grouse/islands-in-the-sky-the-last-holdouts-of-southwestern-dusky-grouse/

Climate change and wildfire threaten dusky grouse habitat in the Southwest, with models predicting near-total loss by 2060.

10/08/2026

Before the U.S. Forest Service adopted the Roadless Area Conservation Rule—more commonly known simply as the Roadless Rule—in January 2001, it did so after a prolonged and in-depth public consultation process.

The rule was implemented as the result of three full years of policy development during the Clinton administration, which included a year of formal rulemaking, as well as extensive public participation.

There were 617 public meetings—literally every single national forest and grassland held at least two meetings—and more than 1.6 million public comments were received across roughly fifteen months. Depending on the source, 90% to 97% of those were in favor of creating the rule.

Now, as we all know, the Trump administration is planning on rescinding the Roadless Rule in its entirety (primarily to open up Alaska's Tongass National Forest to industrial logging).

During this process, which has been significantly shorter and involved zero public meetings, Americans once again submitted over 1.6 million public comments. That's insanely impressive. It's arguably the most intense outpouring of public participation in federal rulemaking in the nation's history.

This time, more than 99% of comments were against rescinding the rule. That's near-unversal opposition. Support now is even higher than when it was created. Why? Because the Roadless Rule works. It benefits outdoorsy people, wildlife, and water alike.

Yet, despite almost unanimous support for the Roadless Rule, I fully expect Trump's Forest Service to rescind it anyway.

And they can do that. The Roadless Rule is just a federal rule. It's not a law.

And that’s where the future of our Roadless Area lies: firmly embedded in and protected by federal law—codified in a bill passed by Congress.

Even if the Trump administration moves forward with rescission, a future Congress could still permanently protect these public lands with a pro-conservation bill.

And that’s why we so desperately need a pro-conservation, pro-environment, pro-wildlife, and pro-public lands majority in both the House and the Senate.

The midterms are less than four weeks away.

You know what to do.

Read the full story here: https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/americans-leave-16-million-public

10/03/2026

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-08378500/ =continuous-00060-0&period=P7D&showFieldMeasurements=true

Pecos is running at 675 CFS. Median for this day historically is 45 CFS.

Be some tough fishing out there until it comes down.

Discover water data collected at monitoring location USGS-08378500, located in San Miguel County, New Mexico and find additional nearby monitoring locations.

09/27/2026

The White House is reportedly considering building a baseball field in Grand Teton National Park after Major League Baseball approached the administration about hosting a game at a national park. MORE BELOW ⬇️

09/26/2026

In honor of National Public Lands Day.

Yesterday, in Northern New Mexico

09/25/2026

We should ask ourselves is this ethical and moral?

Rocky Mountain Elk traverse a New Mexico hillside. Photo credit: Chris Neary.

09/25/2026

Beaver pond on a Northern NM trout stream. Due to the rain, the water is very muddy above the pond. Below the pond, even w the rain it is mostly clear.

Water moves very slow in the pond which causes dirt and other particulates to settle on the bottom. The beaver ponds also slow fast moving water which result in less erosion of stream banks downstream from the ponds.

The water also filters through adjacent vegetation created by the beaver ponds.