June 1, 2025 • 32 mins
On this very special episode of the Ahi Va Podcast listeners will have the opportunity to meet District 15; State Representative Dayan Hochman-Vigil. Having served as the Chair of the House Transportation, Public Works & Capital Improvements Committee, Rep. Hochman-Vigil was instrumental in helping New Mexico become the very first state ever to develop a statewide Wildlife Corridors Action Plan. Now serving as the House Majority Whip, Rep. Hochman-Vigil continues to leverage her leadership and influence to advance New Mexico's conservation priorities. Joined by Judy Calman from Audubon Southwest, Rep. Hochman-Vigil and podcast host Jesse Deubel all discuss the behind the scenes action that went into passing Senate Bill 5, The Wildlife Heritage Act. Understanding the intricacies of how things work at the New Mexico State Legislature is crucial to finding success each session. Take this opportunity to hear all about it from one of our elected champions inside the Roundhouse. Huge thanks to Rep. Hochman-Vigil for all her work at the Capitol and for taking the time to talk with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and Audubon Southwest about it. Enjoy the listen!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to another episode of the iv
(00:03):
OP podcast. This is your host Jesse du Bell with
the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, and I'm super privileged today
to be joined by two fantastic guests, one of whom
is actually going to be serving as our co host
of today's show. I've recently come down with a temporary
medical condition called Bell's palsy, which has affects my ability
(00:25):
to speak, So I'm not going to be the most
effective host of a podcast today. But luckily I've got
with me Judy Kalman from Audubon Southwest and Judy was
an instrumental partner in the passage of Senate Bill five,
the Wildlife Heritage Act, does incredible conservation work all across
the state. And she also has a long standing relationship
with our other guest, Representative day Hawkman V.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So let's go ahead and start with you, Represented. Would
you like to introduce yourself and tell our listeners a
little bit about you, your history, your time in New Mexico,
and what motivated you to get into a life of
public service and grace this grace state with your presence
at the state Legislature. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation presents
the JAHI VA Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hi sure, thanks so much both of you for asking
me to come on the podcast. I'm really excited to
be here today. I am day in, but I go
by day to everybody. Hawkman V. Hill. I am a
state representative for House District fifteen in New Mexico, which
is the North Valley of Albuquerque. I am a native
(01:33):
New Mexican born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
and now I live in Albuquerque. I in my day job.
Most people don't know this, but New Mexico is the
last remaining fully volunteer state legislature in the country, so
all of us legislators have most of us anyways have
full time jobs on top of being in the legislature,
(01:54):
and mine is that I am an attorney. I specialize
in aviation and space law. So I got involved with
politics after the twenty sixteen election. I just kind of
felt a call to service because of various events that
were taking place at that time. And I'd always come
(02:15):
from a very political family, but I just kind of
felt like my background at the time would help kind
of guide my community through some difficult issues that it
was going through at that time, and I became very
involved in party politics, and I was asked to put
my name in the hat to run for a House
district seat, which at the time was one of the
(02:37):
what we call swing seats. Swing swing seats, so fifty
to fifty districts that can go either way. At the time,
the person who was the incumbent was extremely popular, and
my party asked me to put my name in the hat, saying,
don't worry, we know you're going to lose. Just do
us this solid and run the race, but you don't
have to run very hard. And it turns out the
(02:57):
day that all of the candidates for the races put
their names in, the incumbent did not show up that
day and a different candidate showed up, and so the
party kind of changed their assessment of the race of like, hey,
you just went from the least interesting race the most
interesting race, and you know the thing about you losing,
(03:18):
We don't think that. We think you can actually pull
this one off if you work really hard, and so
will you do that? And I said, well, this was
not the deal that you guys had talked to me about,
but absolutely, if we're going to do this, We're going
to do it right. And so we ran a really
competitive race. We knocked I think over six thousand doors.
And I was elected for my first term in twenty eighteen,
serving in the twenty nineteen legislative session, and I've been
(03:41):
elected three times since and now I'm serving in a
House leadership role is the House Majority Whip, and I
understand we're probably going to be talking about my role
a little bit today.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well on that, yeah, thank you so much. I think
it's going to be really interesting to dive into the
details of what that role actually entails. Judy, do you
want to talk a little bit about Senebil five, the
Wildlife Heritage Act. This is your third time on the
show talking about this same bill, but it was such
a monumental bill, and today we're going to be talking
about it in a different context entirely, kind of a
behind the curtains, behind the scenes look at it. And
(04:16):
so maybe you can help us to segue into how
Representative Hawkman V. Hill was so critical in the success
of this particular piece of legislation.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Sure, I'm happy to do that, and thanks for having
me again, Jesse, And just for the sake of introduction,
I'm Judy Kalman. I'm the New Mexico policy director for
the Audubon Society. So we work on all things birds
and the things birds need, which is the same thing
that all people need to water and clean air and
clean everything. And so as part of that role, I've
(04:48):
been part of a coalition working on wildlife issues for
a long time with the greater conservation community in New Mexico,
and we've been working on the issues in Senate Bill
five for over a decade now. Some of our groups
have been working on it for many decades, but we've
been working on this bill in earnest for about a
decade and it's taken iterations different iterations over the years.
(05:08):
There have been I think ten bills over the last
ten years that dealt with a piece of Senate Bill five,
and we ended up putting them all together into a
sort of omnibus bill this year. And as part of
putting that all together in an omnibus bill this year,
we also merged all the various coalitions working on the
various parts of Senate Bill five. So I think that
was part of what led to an effective strategy for
getting it actually passed. Just so people know what we're
(05:31):
talking about before we talk about the ins and outs
of actually getting a bill passed here. Senate Bill five
is the Wildlife Heritage Act, and it basically was an
overhaul and modernization of the Game and Fish Department and
the regulations that govern the Game and Fish Department. And
so it consisted of four pieces. I'll go over them
(05:52):
very quickly just so everybody understands what we're talking about.
One piece was a license fee increase for the department.
So Game and Fish is a weird agency in New
Mexico because it's an enterprise agency, so it doesn't get
general revenue too much through HB two, which is our
budget bill. They have to make their own money through
license fees, and then they also get federal funds through
(06:13):
the Pittman Robertson Act in a couple others, and so
their fees for hunting and fishing licenses are actually set
in statute, and so they had to be increased through statute,
but hadn't been since two thousand and six, and so
they had been going through inflation and inflation and salary
adjustments and all kinds of increased expenses without any increased
revenue from those license fees, and so the sportsmen's groups collectively,
(06:37):
over a long period of time, worked together to figure
out what the adjusted fees should be twenty years later
for different licenses, and that whole table of fee increases, adjustments,
whatever you want to call them, was part of SB five.
And then another piece was that it actually changed the
name of the department. So starting into twenty twenty six,
(06:57):
I can't believe that that's the year. I almost said
twenty sixteen, just because you just said twenty sixteen. Starting
in twenty twenty six the Department of Game and Fish
will actually be called the Department of Wildlife. We were
one of the last states to change our name to
something wildlife related. Most states have done that already. There
are very few states left in the country that still
(07:19):
use game and Fish as their name, and that's because
state wildlife agencies are responsible for a lot more species
management than just game and fish species already, including ours.
So the new Mexico Game and Fish Department does a
lot of wildlife work that has nothing to do with
species that are hunted and fished, and so it's really
sort of just recalibrating the agency to be more holistically
(07:42):
focused on wildlife as a whole, which again is already
something they're doing, but something we'd also like them to
be doing more of non game species work, and so
it just kind of is a more accurate reflection of
their current work and what we hope to see them
doing more of. And then the third piece is that
we actually we clarified a piece of the statue, the
(08:04):
existing statute that was vague, so the taxa species that
the department has full authority to work on are actually
listed in our statute, and that statute did not include
all species, and so there was some confusion or uncertainty,
I guess is the better word, about whether the Game
(08:27):
and Fish Department could work on things like insects and
pollinators because they weren't specifically listed in that statute. And
so we adjusted the language so that it specifically covers
all species so that the department can do whatever it
needs to do for species in decline. And we know
that bees and pollinators are in series decline. So if
there's any sort of uncertainty that they are able to
work on that, that would be bad because we need
(08:50):
them to be able to This is the only wildlife
agency we have in the States. And then the fourth
piece was commissioned reform and Jesse hopefully can talk about
this little bit more later, But the Game and Fish
Department is regulated by a seven member board that's appointed
by the governor, and the board is appointed completely at will.
And so for many many decades, one hundred years, whatever
(09:12):
it's been, every time a new governor comes into office,
they get rid of the existing commission and put in
a whole new commission, and that has created very large
pendulum swings of policy when it comes to how we're
going to allocate tags, what species we're going to protect,
which species we're not going to protect, whether we're going
to participate in the federal Endangered Species program or not,
(09:35):
that kind of thing. And so we all sort of
recognized that there was a need for more stability on
the commission, and so as part of Senate Bill five,
we actually created more specificity into about who should be
on the Commission and then also created a nominating committee
that would give qualified candidates to the governor. We'll probably
(09:58):
talk about this later, but originally in Senate Bill five,
there was also a process for removal of commissioners. At
the moment, they're just removed at will by the governor,
and so we wanted to create a process where they
could only be removed for cause, so that it wasn't
quite so easy to just get rid of the whole
commission and replace them. That piece got a little wonky
at the end, which we can talk about later. So
(10:19):
those are the pieces of Senate Bill five. It's a lot.
It was a lot of different pieces at once. But
I think where we're going to pivot is that the
process for passing a bill of that magnitude is really complicated,
and so much happens both before the legislative session and
then during the legislative session to get it across the
finish line. And so you know, we talked about working
(10:42):
on this for ten years, and we've been working with
our sponsors for a long time, but there's also just
the actual legislative process during the session of getting the
thing passed, and so that was what we were hoping
to talk about more today.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, thank you so much, Judy, And so you and
I worked together as co ed expert witnesses as we
moved the bill through the committee hearing process and when
we got to the House floor. So after passing through
through one House committee, that's what it was, right, Gendi.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, So we started this bill in the Senate, so
we went through three Senate committees actually, and then we
passed the Senate floor. And then because we had had
three committees in the Senate, it was the decision was
made to let us just have one House committee and
then we did go to the House floor.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So we passed the House committee together, you and I
serving as co expert witnesses and answering questions and fielding
questions from legislators and so on and so forth. Then
when we get to the House floor, things got pretty uncertain,
and I would say that was throughout the entire session.
That particular process was one of the most nerve racking
for me, one of the most stressful. And that's the
(11:53):
time when Representative Hawkmanby Hill really came to our assistance,
recognized the importance of this particular bill. And I'd like
to hear from me, Representative is to what things were
like that day for you, how you sprung into action,
and just what things are like from the perspective of
a legislator as we're working to try to get this
thing to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Sure. Yeah, So being on the floor of any chamber,
either the Center or the House, Senate or the House
can be a pretty harrowing experience, mostly just because you
are subject to the entire vote of that chamber, right
and so I, Judy and various other advocates working on
(12:35):
the bill had done a really great job of reaching
out to me both as a legislator and also my
role in leadership is the whip to kind of educate
me about the bill, why it was so important. And
then also, you know, as you went through the process
with leadership in the House, to identify this bill as
a House priority bill really give us the ammunition ammunition
(12:56):
we needed to kind of build that moment to an
energy to get it through the House. With any big
bill such as this one, you know, omnibus type bill,
there's a lot of moving pieces and parts, and there's
a lot of information and misinformation and in some cases
disinformation that floats around about bills like this, and so really,
(13:17):
you know, after it was identified as a House priority,
it was then my job to whip the votes. That's
where the whip gets their name from, Whip the votes
in our caucus or throughout the chamber to ensure that
we could achieve passage of the bill, and so that's
kind of how I got involved with it. I know
(13:37):
that everybody was working really hard, and again it was
touch and go for a while. I'll give it back
to Judy to kind of talk about what was happening
behind the scenes, and then I can fill in from
the floor from there.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Before I do that, can I ask a quick question
and could you talk about how something becomes a priority bill?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Sure? Yeah, I mean it's you would think that there'd
be a more formal process, but it's basically leadership kind
of getting you a list of various bills that we're
considering that kind of align with our policy priorities in
the House. And this bill was definitely a priority because
we've been working on a lot of us have been
(14:16):
working on, you know, climate issues, wildlife conservation issues, and
this bill had a lot of stuff that was near
and dear to a lot of legislator's hearts. So we
identified it early on as something that really needed to
get through.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Thanks, And yeah, I guess it's worth pointing out before
we get into the nitty gritty of the process that
House floor debates are limited to three hours, so they
don't go on indefinitely, So like you kind of know
going into a House floor debate that you have a
three hour window. Not all debates take three hours, but
on complicated bills like this one, they often do, so
(14:50):
they sort of schedule them knowing in advance that they
will probably go that long. But that sort of gave
us our time frame of making sure that we were
going to pass the House floor and you know, I
will say, we do a ton of work all through
the session leading up to that point to make sure
that we've talked to every single legislator, so we have
a pretty good idea of the vote count in advance.
(15:12):
But that doesn't mean that people's opinions won't be swayed
by florid debate or by somebody talking to them at
the last minute or whatever. So you always kind of
have to keep making sure until the actual vote happens
that it's still going the way you wanted to. I
will say our coalition did an amazing job of talking
to every single legislator this year. I think we all
(15:33):
talked to basically all of them. I actually counted and
I talked to one hundred and one legislators in person,
face to face during the session, which is crazy and
I never want to do it again, but I think
all of us did that, which was you know, so
I feel like the legislature was really well educated on
this bill, in particular going into the debate, which is
either good or bad depending on how you look at it,
(15:54):
but mostly good. But yeah, you know, the House floor
was I think the closest vote that we had and
the most uncertain one leading up to the actual vote
being taken. So in all the other committees and the
Senate floor, we had a really good idea in advance
about what the actual votes would be, and in the
(16:17):
House there was just a little bit more uncertainty. And
that uncertainty carried forward through the three hour debate, and
I think, you know, until the last forty five minutes
or so, we weren't one hundred percent sure that everything
was going to be okay. And thanks to Representative Hawkman
vy Hill and the House leadership, it was so good
job whipping the votes.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I mean, it's interesting because you have like what's going
on in the debate, right, and then you have what's
going on like underneath the debate, yes, And so what
that looks like is, you know, you have people on
the floor like myself running around. My job essentially is
just checking in with people and kind of talking to them,
asking them where they are with the bill, asking if
(16:59):
they can commit their vote for the bill, or to
let me know if they cannot commit their vote, just
so you know, my job is to is to produce
an accurate count, right, because there's all sorts of strategy
that goes into that, you know, whether it's time utilization
or you know, maybe there are other motions that can
be made if a bill fails. Just every always kind
(17:20):
of being two steps ahead. And so what was really
the synchronicity that was really amazing with Senate Bill five
is like while we were doing the work on the floor,
all the advocates were doing the work on their phones, right,
so each person kind of touching, touching, each legislator, checking in,
checking my count, checking their account, and then eventually we
(17:42):
kind of had a really good idea of where we were.
And then I also think, and this is just my
personal opinion, but I think that a lot of legislators
saw how hard we were working on this, and I
think that that kind of swayed them in some instances too,
and that they said, you know, gee, this must be
a really this must be really important, because people were
just giving it They're.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
All, yeah, well, I have no doubt that without your help,
Representative Hakman vy Hill, we things would not have gone
as smooth as they did. At least whether or not
it would have passed, I can't necessarily predict, but I
think you deserve a tremendous amount of credit for Senate
Bill five getting through that House vote. And I'll just
(18:24):
say from a personal testimony, this is the first that's
not true. This is the first time I've been an
expert witness on a bill that actually was passed and
signed by the governor. I've been expert witness on bills
previously that didn't make it to the finish line. But
I'll say that when you get to the in committee,
as an expert witness, Judy, we had the opportunity to
field questions to respond, and there's a lot of technical
(18:47):
details in the bill, and there's a lot of nuances,
and it's not possible or realistic to expect every legislator
to understand every single specific detail about the things that
are dealt with in this bill. And that's why the
expert witnesses are so important. But when we're on the
house floor, or the Senate floor for that matter, the
expert witnesses don't have the opportunity to actually speak. So
(19:09):
when questions come up, or when misinformation sometimes arises or
misunderstandings are being vocalized by legislators in the debate process,
we're limited to trying to help explain the issue to
the bill sponsors, who then have to regurgitate the information
that we quietly whispered in their ear, and then they
deliver that back to exactly The other thing we don't
(19:34):
have the luxury of doing is moving as expert witnesses,
is moving around the house floor. So when I can
tell there's a legislator who doesn't fully understand the specifics
of one of the details of the bill, I so
badly want to just sneak over there and have a
very quick conversation and say, well, well, no, no, no, that's
not what this does. What it actually does is this.
(19:54):
But I don't have that luxury. But luckily we have
champions that have the ability to move around and have
those conversations and change those minds and provide that education.
And that's one of the ways I think Representative Hawkman v.
Hill that you were just absolutely instrumental in helping us
get this thing to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It was my pleasure. It was a really good bill.
It was a good piece of policy. You guys worked
really hard, you know, I was. I just kind of
see myself more as like a vessel or you know,
part of the machine to kind of put it all
together and make it work. But yeah, it really helps
having great experts, having great advocacy, having you know, all
the good information on your side. And also I want
(20:35):
to take an opportunity to kind of give kudos to
my caucus and that you know, we work really well
together and people are not afraid to ask questions and
stand up and say, you know, I don't really understand
this aspect of it, or hey, I heard this thing
that is troubling to me, and here's what it is.
And you know that kind of creating and cultivating that
atmosphere where people really step up and make sure that
(20:58):
they're making good decisions based on good information is really
like a big part of this process too, right, And
kind of creating an environment and cultivating the environment where
people feel comfortable doing that was a big part of that,
and I you know that's that's a lot of that
has to do with Speaker Martinez and Leader Skapanski as well,
and also our caucus chair just you know, creating an
environment where people feel comfortable to ask the tough questions
(21:20):
and get to a place where they they are willing
to commit.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So well, thank you so much for that. And you know,
we're so fortunate in New Mexico to have you in
our state legislature because it's maybe wouldn't be completely obvious
considering your professional role, but you are a conservation champion.
You've done so many things in the state legislature to
advance our conservation priorities. At the New Mexico Wildlife Federation
(21:44):
and across the entire New Mexico Conservation Coalition. One of
the things that we've worked on for a number of years,
probably since you were first elected, is wildlife corridors like
big big game migration corridors, wildlife crossings, finding ways for
wildlife to say fully cross roadways. Do you want to
talk a little bit about your your role throughout that
(22:05):
process over the years, because I think that's another place
where you have just been critical in helping us to
advance key conservation priorities.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Sure, yeah, so I conservation, climate change issues, conservation wildlife,
you know, and endangered protection and danger species species are
all really important issues in the district that I represent.
I have some incredible conservationists who live in House District
fifteen who have been instrumental in kind of teaching me
(22:35):
the importance of these issues. I come from a family that,
you know, we're very into stewardship, environmental stewardship, and so
that kind of with the confluence of I was before
I was the whip, I was appointed as the chair
of the House Transportation, Public Works, and Capital Improvements Committee,
which you don't think like that would have anything to
(22:55):
do with climate or wildlife or conservation, but it actually does.
And here's why. It's actually through infrastructure, I believe, and
I think a lot of us actually believe, is how
we're going to achieve, you know, our goals to get
to net zero in New Mexico by twenty fifty through
the Energy Transition Act. And so, you know, by supporting
(23:18):
smart infrastructure that can actually help us achieve those goals
as it relates to climate. And so the wildlife crossings
were first introduced to me by Senate pro tim the
President of the Senate, Mimi Stewart, who's been working on
the issue for several years. And before I was on
the Transportation Committee, I was on the Budget Committee, and
(23:38):
I learned a lot about, you know, the budgeting for
the Department of Transportation and all the stuff that they're
doing and so. And before that, I was a lawyer
working on automobile crash cases, and I had a really
tremendously terrible, awful case that involved wildlife on five point
fifty in New Mexico. Five fifty so, which is one
(23:59):
of which is where we put our first quarter right.
And it's it's not just a conservation issue, it's also
a safety issue, and it's also an economic issue as well,
because for every person that has a single car accident,
you know, an incursion with wildlife, that is, you know,
that's another accident that insurance has to pay for. That
(24:20):
increases our insurance rates. The more crash crashes you have
with wildlife, the more expensive these crashes become. A lot
of people don't know this, but in their like your
standard automobile you know, insurance policy, a lot of them
don't carry wildlife incursion. They carry exclusions for wildlife incursions,
(24:41):
and so if you get in a terrible accident with wildlife,
they're not going to pay for that. And so the
corridor kind of became like a common sense solution to
this problem, and that you know, why don't we save
both wildlife and the people who are getting in accents
with these wildlife a whole lot of heartache by just
creating these this infrastructure to allow the wildlife to cross
(25:04):
over these large roads without putting them in dangerous positions.
And it also allows for the migration and other like
environmental issues related to wildlife to kind of to play
out in New Mexico because there's a lot of really
important species that migrate throughout the state up into Colorado,
(25:26):
and this is just a way to kind of allow
them to do that in peace without kind of also
having all of the consequences that come with combining wildlife
and cars going fast on large highways, which is never
a good combination. So, you know, I was happy to
support the wildlife crossings as Chair of Transportation and continue
(25:49):
to because we're going to need more than just one,
and they are very expensive, but what they save the
state has to be considered as well, what they save
the state and what they say save New Mexicans in
terms of their insurance premiums all have to be taken
into consideration and when figuring the costs.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I think that was super well said. The initial
investment is significant, for sure, but I think it's just
that it's an investment, not an expense, and it pays
for itself long term. And when you were a Chair
of House Transportation back in twenty nineteen, that's when I
feel like we really developed the foundation for what will
become one of the largest and most successful wildlife crossing
(26:30):
programs that any state will ever implement in the country,
because we were the very first state to pass the
Wildlife Corridors Act in twenty nineteen, and again it was
your leadership that helped us accomplish that. And what the
Wildlife Corridors Act did then, was it it appropriated half
a million dollars for Department of Game and Fish and
Department of Transportation to work together on a comprehensive plan
(26:51):
that identified eleven hot spots with the highest incidents of
wildlife vehicle collisions, and as you said, the spot on
Highway five point fifty where you work that memorable case
has now become the location that's going to be the
state's very first major specific wildlife crossing, and it's going
to consist of a series of overpasses, underpasses, wildlife fencing,
(27:15):
and just this last session, and you are super helpful
in this Representative, we got a fifty million dollar appropriation
to get that project built. So the project is already
designed now it's going to be built. And the fifty
million dollars that New Mexico appropriated represents the largest single
appropriation of any state ever for a wildlife crossing. So
(27:36):
I just can't I can't thank you enough for all
of the incredible work you do on behalf of New Mexicans,
on behalf of your constituents, on behalf of wildlife and
the people who depend on wildlife. And I know you've
got another appointment. We have another five or ten minutes,
So Judy, anything else you'd like to add or questions
you'd like to ask.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I just really appreciate all your work, Representative. It really
beats a lot to all of us. I don't know
that I have anything to add specifically. I don't know
if you want to talk about the upshot of set
up Bill five and what ended up happening or what
goes on going forward. That's the only other thing I
can think of that we didn't talk about yet.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, I think sit at Bill five is really going
to be a transformation that all eyes across the country
are going to be on because it's such a major shift,
you know, when you change the entire structure of the Commission.
It's going to be interesting because we're developing the nominating
committee for the first time ever. We're implementing term limits
for the first time ever, you know, So there's a
(28:30):
lot of firsts going on, but it's super exciting, and
I think the execution of it's going to be going
to be a little tricky, but it's going to be
important for the advocates to remain involved. The coalition who
helped to get the bill passed is I think also
going to have to remain involved in helping to navigate
the process of establishing a nominating committee and answering questions
that come up in those kinds of things. So it's exciting.
(28:52):
This is a very exciting time for wildlife management. It's
exciting time for New Mexico to be a leader in
a space where Historically we've had, let's face it, our
commission has been dysfunctional, our agency has been under resourced,
Our agency has been underfunded. We're going through a process
right now. In fact, the comment deadline this podcast will
air June first, twenty twenty five, and on June ninth,
(29:19):
is the comment deadline for the State Wildlife Action Plan,
which is currently underway. And the State Wildlife Action Plan
is a plan that's existed for a long time. Every
state's required to submit one to the federal government in
order to get matching funds. And basically what we do
is we outline are the state agency, our State Wildlife
Agency now going to be the new Mexico Department of Wildlife,
which I'm super excited about, identify species of greatest conservation need,
(29:44):
and essentially outlines a plan of what they can do
to support those species. But historically they haven't had the
resources to actually implement the plan. So they developed this
State Wildlife Action Plan, submit it to the Feds, it
gets approved, and then it goes up on a shelf
and collects dust until they make another one and no
implementation ever happens. But because of Senate Bill five and
(30:04):
then ten and a half million dollars that's appropriated to
the agency over the next three years, specifically for work
on species of greatest conservation need, And because of the
Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, which gives the Department almost
three million dollars a year of funding for species of
greatest conservation need, another legislative effort where Representative Hawkman V.
(30:26):
Hill is very supportive. Because of these things, our agency
now has the resources to do things it's never done before.
So we're in a really, really exciting time in wildlife
management in New Mexico, and so much of it is
because of Yourepresentative, And I just I can't thank you
enough for all of the fantastic work you've done. And
we're just talking conservation and wildlife here today because this
(30:46):
is of course the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, but the
amount of work that you've done across the board in
so many different categories is just phenomenal and I can't
thank you enough for that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Thanks. Thanks both.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, do you have any any concluding thoughts, Representative, anything
else you'd like to add or leave our listeners and
your constituents with before we let you get off to
your next busy meeting.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
No, thanks, thanks for coming here today and talking about
this important subject and really excited to see what we
do next. I think this set a really exciting precedent
so well.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Thank you so much and super super eager to continue
working with you in the future. Ken, thank you enough.
I know it's a big sacrifice, as you mentioned earlier
in the show, you know where the last legislature left.
Where you're a volunteer, You're sacrificing tremendous amount of time
and energy and stress and lost sleep and all of
those things to support the people of New Mexico and
(31:40):
to support your constituents, and it really means a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Thank you. It's pleasure of a lifetime and I wouldn't
be here but for the efforts of folks like you
and your great advocacy. So thanks for all that you
do as well.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Thanks for listening to the Aahiva podcast produced by Drift
with Outdoors.
Hello everybody, Welcome back to another episode of the iv
(00:03):
OP podcast. This is your host Jesse du Bell with
the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, and I'm super privileged today
to be joined by two fantastic guests, one of whom
is actually going to be serving as our co host
of today's show. I've recently come down with a temporary
medical condition called Bell's palsy, which has affects my ability
(00:25):
to speak, So I'm not going to be the most
effective host of a podcast today. But luckily I've got
with me Judy Kalman from Audubon Southwest and Judy was
an instrumental partner in the passage of Senate Bill five,
the Wildlife Heritage Act, does incredible conservation work all across
the state. And she also has a long standing relationship
with our other guest, Representative day Hawkman V.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So let's go ahead and start with you, Represented. Would
you like to introduce yourself and tell our listeners a
little bit about you, your history, your time in New Mexico,
and what motivated you to get into a life of
public service and grace this grace state with your presence
at the state Legislature. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation presents
the JAHI VA Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hi sure, thanks so much both of you for asking
me to come on the podcast. I'm really excited to
be here today. I am day in, but I go
by day to everybody. Hawkman V. Hill. I am a
state representative for House District fifteen in New Mexico, which
is the North Valley of Albuquerque. I am a native
(01:33):
New Mexican born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
and now I live in Albuquerque. I in my day job.
Most people don't know this, but New Mexico is the
last remaining fully volunteer state legislature in the country, so
all of us legislators have most of us anyways have
full time jobs on top of being in the legislature,
(01:54):
and mine is that I am an attorney. I specialize
in aviation and space law. So I got involved with
politics after the twenty sixteen election. I just kind of
felt a call to service because of various events that
were taking place at that time. And I'd always come
(02:15):
from a very political family, but I just kind of
felt like my background at the time would help kind
of guide my community through some difficult issues that it
was going through at that time, and I became very
involved in party politics, and I was asked to put
my name in the hat to run for a House
district seat, which at the time was one of the
(02:37):
what we call swing seats. Swing swing seats, so fifty
to fifty districts that can go either way. At the time,
the person who was the incumbent was extremely popular, and
my party asked me to put my name in the hat, saying,
don't worry, we know you're going to lose. Just do
us this solid and run the race, but you don't
have to run very hard. And it turns out the
(02:57):
day that all of the candidates for the races put
their names in, the incumbent did not show up that
day and a different candidate showed up, and so the
party kind of changed their assessment of the race of like, hey,
you just went from the least interesting race the most
interesting race, and you know the thing about you losing,
(03:18):
We don't think that. We think you can actually pull
this one off if you work really hard, and so
will you do that? And I said, well, this was
not the deal that you guys had talked to me about,
but absolutely, if we're going to do this, We're going
to do it right. And so we ran a really
competitive race. We knocked I think over six thousand doors.
And I was elected for my first term in twenty eighteen,
serving in the twenty nineteen legislative session, and I've been
(03:41):
elected three times since and now I'm serving in a
House leadership role is the House Majority Whip, and I
understand we're probably going to be talking about my role
a little bit today.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well on that, yeah, thank you so much. I think
it's going to be really interesting to dive into the
details of what that role actually entails. Judy, do you
want to talk a little bit about Senebil five, the
Wildlife Heritage Act. This is your third time on the
show talking about this same bill, but it was such
a monumental bill, and today we're going to be talking
about it in a different context entirely, kind of a
behind the curtains, behind the scenes look at it. And
(04:16):
so maybe you can help us to segue into how
Representative Hawkman V. Hill was so critical in the success
of this particular piece of legislation.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Sure, I'm happy to do that, and thanks for having
me again, Jesse, And just for the sake of introduction,
I'm Judy Kalman. I'm the New Mexico policy director for
the Audubon Society. So we work on all things birds
and the things birds need, which is the same thing
that all people need to water and clean air and
clean everything. And so as part of that role, I've
(04:48):
been part of a coalition working on wildlife issues for
a long time with the greater conservation community in New Mexico,
and we've been working on the issues in Senate Bill
five for over a decade now. Some of our groups
have been working on it for many decades, but we've
been working on this bill in earnest for about a
decade and it's taken iterations different iterations over the years.
(05:08):
There have been I think ten bills over the last
ten years that dealt with a piece of Senate Bill five,
and we ended up putting them all together into a
sort of omnibus bill this year. And as part of
putting that all together in an omnibus bill this year,
we also merged all the various coalitions working on the
various parts of Senate Bill five. So I think that
was part of what led to an effective strategy for
getting it actually passed. Just so people know what we're
(05:31):
talking about before we talk about the ins and outs
of actually getting a bill passed here. Senate Bill five
is the Wildlife Heritage Act, and it basically was an
overhaul and modernization of the Game and Fish Department and
the regulations that govern the Game and Fish Department. And
so it consisted of four pieces. I'll go over them
(05:52):
very quickly just so everybody understands what we're talking about.
One piece was a license fee increase for the department.
So Game and Fish is a weird agency in New
Mexico because it's an enterprise agency, so it doesn't get
general revenue too much through HB two, which is our
budget bill. They have to make their own money through
license fees, and then they also get federal funds through
(06:13):
the Pittman Robertson Act in a couple others, and so
their fees for hunting and fishing licenses are actually set
in statute, and so they had to be increased through statute,
but hadn't been since two thousand and six, and so
they had been going through inflation and inflation and salary
adjustments and all kinds of increased expenses without any increased
revenue from those license fees, and so the sportsmen's groups collectively,
(06:37):
over a long period of time, worked together to figure
out what the adjusted fees should be twenty years later
for different licenses, and that whole table of fee increases, adjustments,
whatever you want to call them, was part of SB five.
And then another piece was that it actually changed the
name of the department. So starting into twenty twenty six,
(06:57):
I can't believe that that's the year. I almost said
twenty sixteen, just because you just said twenty sixteen. Starting
in twenty twenty six the Department of Game and Fish
will actually be called the Department of Wildlife. We were
one of the last states to change our name to
something wildlife related. Most states have done that already. There
are very few states left in the country that still
(07:19):
use game and Fish as their name, and that's because
state wildlife agencies are responsible for a lot more species
management than just game and fish species already, including ours.
So the new Mexico Game and Fish Department does a
lot of wildlife work that has nothing to do with
species that are hunted and fished, and so it's really
sort of just recalibrating the agency to be more holistically
(07:42):
focused on wildlife as a whole, which again is already
something they're doing, but something we'd also like them to
be doing more of non game species work, and so
it just kind of is a more accurate reflection of
their current work and what we hope to see them
doing more of. And then the third piece is that
we actually we clarified a piece of the statue, the
(08:04):
existing statute that was vague, so the taxa species that
the department has full authority to work on are actually
listed in our statute, and that statute did not include
all species, and so there was some confusion or uncertainty,
I guess is the better word, about whether the Game
(08:27):
and Fish Department could work on things like insects and
pollinators because they weren't specifically listed in that statute. And
so we adjusted the language so that it specifically covers
all species so that the department can do whatever it
needs to do for species in decline. And we know
that bees and pollinators are in series decline. So if
there's any sort of uncertainty that they are able to
work on that, that would be bad because we need
(08:50):
them to be able to This is the only wildlife
agency we have in the States. And then the fourth
piece was commissioned reform and Jesse hopefully can talk about
this little bit more later, But the Game and Fish
Department is regulated by a seven member board that's appointed
by the governor, and the board is appointed completely at will.
And so for many many decades, one hundred years, whatever
(09:12):
it's been, every time a new governor comes into office,
they get rid of the existing commission and put in
a whole new commission, and that has created very large
pendulum swings of policy when it comes to how we're
going to allocate tags, what species we're going to protect,
which species we're not going to protect, whether we're going
to participate in the federal Endangered Species program or not,
(09:35):
that kind of thing. And so we all sort of
recognized that there was a need for more stability on
the commission, and so as part of Senate Bill five,
we actually created more specificity into about who should be
on the Commission and then also created a nominating committee
that would give qualified candidates to the governor. We'll probably
(09:58):
talk about this later, but originally in Senate Bill five,
there was also a process for removal of commissioners. At
the moment, they're just removed at will by the governor,
and so we wanted to create a process where they
could only be removed for cause, so that it wasn't
quite so easy to just get rid of the whole
commission and replace them. That piece got a little wonky
at the end, which we can talk about later. So
(10:19):
those are the pieces of Senate Bill five. It's a lot.
It was a lot of different pieces at once. But
I think where we're going to pivot is that the
process for passing a bill of that magnitude is really complicated,
and so much happens both before the legislative session and
then during the legislative session to get it across the
finish line. And so you know, we talked about working
(10:42):
on this for ten years, and we've been working with
our sponsors for a long time, but there's also just
the actual legislative process during the session of getting the
thing passed, and so that was what we were hoping
to talk about more today.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, thank you so much, Judy, And so you and
I worked together as co ed expert witnesses as we
moved the bill through the committee hearing process and when
we got to the House floor. So after passing through
through one House committee, that's what it was, right, Gendi.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, So we started this bill in the Senate, so
we went through three Senate committees actually, and then we
passed the Senate floor. And then because we had had
three committees in the Senate, it was the decision was
made to let us just have one House committee and
then we did go to the House floor.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So we passed the House committee together, you and I
serving as co expert witnesses and answering questions and fielding
questions from legislators and so on and so forth. Then
when we get to the House floor, things got pretty uncertain,
and I would say that was throughout the entire session.
That particular process was one of the most nerve racking
for me, one of the most stressful. And that's the
(11:53):
time when Representative Hawkmanby Hill really came to our assistance,
recognized the importance of this particular bill. And I'd like
to hear from me, Representative is to what things were
like that day for you, how you sprung into action,
and just what things are like from the perspective of
a legislator as we're working to try to get this
thing to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Sure. Yeah, So being on the floor of any chamber,
either the Center or the House, Senate or the House
can be a pretty harrowing experience, mostly just because you
are subject to the entire vote of that chamber, right
and so I, Judy and various other advocates working on
(12:35):
the bill had done a really great job of reaching
out to me both as a legislator and also my
role in leadership is the whip to kind of educate
me about the bill, why it was so important. And
then also, you know, as you went through the process
with leadership in the House, to identify this bill as
a House priority bill really give us the ammunition ammunition
(12:56):
we needed to kind of build that moment to an
energy to get it through the House. With any big
bill such as this one, you know, omnibus type bill,
there's a lot of moving pieces and parts, and there's
a lot of information and misinformation and in some cases
disinformation that floats around about bills like this, and so really,
(13:17):
you know, after it was identified as a House priority,
it was then my job to whip the votes. That's
where the whip gets their name from, Whip the votes
in our caucus or throughout the chamber to ensure that
we could achieve passage of the bill, and so that's
kind of how I got involved with it. I know
(13:37):
that everybody was working really hard, and again it was
touch and go for a while. I'll give it back
to Judy to kind of talk about what was happening
behind the scenes, and then I can fill in from
the floor from there.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Before I do that, can I ask a quick question
and could you talk about how something becomes a priority bill?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Sure? Yeah, I mean it's you would think that there'd
be a more formal process, but it's basically leadership kind
of getting you a list of various bills that we're
considering that kind of align with our policy priorities in
the House. And this bill was definitely a priority because
we've been working on a lot of us have been
(14:16):
working on, you know, climate issues, wildlife conservation issues, and
this bill had a lot of stuff that was near
and dear to a lot of legislator's hearts. So we
identified it early on as something that really needed to
get through.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Thanks, And yeah, I guess it's worth pointing out before
we get into the nitty gritty of the process that
House floor debates are limited to three hours, so they
don't go on indefinitely, So like you kind of know
going into a House floor debate that you have a
three hour window. Not all debates take three hours, but
on complicated bills like this one, they often do, so
(14:50):
they sort of schedule them knowing in advance that they
will probably go that long. But that sort of gave
us our time frame of making sure that we were
going to pass the House floor and you know, I
will say, we do a ton of work all through
the session leading up to that point to make sure
that we've talked to every single legislator, so we have
a pretty good idea of the vote count in advance.
(15:12):
But that doesn't mean that people's opinions won't be swayed
by florid debate or by somebody talking to them at
the last minute or whatever. So you always kind of
have to keep making sure until the actual vote happens
that it's still going the way you wanted to. I
will say our coalition did an amazing job of talking
to every single legislator this year. I think we all
(15:33):
talked to basically all of them. I actually counted and
I talked to one hundred and one legislators in person,
face to face during the session, which is crazy and
I never want to do it again, but I think
all of us did that, which was you know, so
I feel like the legislature was really well educated on
this bill, in particular going into the debate, which is
either good or bad depending on how you look at it,
(15:54):
but mostly good. But yeah, you know, the House floor
was I think the closest vote that we had and
the most uncertain one leading up to the actual vote
being taken. So in all the other committees and the
Senate floor, we had a really good idea in advance
about what the actual votes would be, and in the
(16:17):
House there was just a little bit more uncertainty. And
that uncertainty carried forward through the three hour debate, and
I think, you know, until the last forty five minutes
or so, we weren't one hundred percent sure that everything
was going to be okay. And thanks to Representative Hawkman
vy Hill and the House leadership, it was so good
job whipping the votes.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I mean, it's interesting because you have like what's going
on in the debate, right, and then you have what's
going on like underneath the debate, yes, And so what
that looks like is, you know, you have people on
the floor like myself running around. My job essentially is
just checking in with people and kind of talking to them,
asking them where they are with the bill, asking if
(16:59):
they can commit their vote for the bill, or to
let me know if they cannot commit their vote, just
so you know, my job is to is to produce
an accurate count, right, because there's all sorts of strategy
that goes into that, you know, whether it's time utilization
or you know, maybe there are other motions that can
be made if a bill fails. Just every always kind
(17:20):
of being two steps ahead. And so what was really
the synchronicity that was really amazing with Senate Bill five
is like while we were doing the work on the floor,
all the advocates were doing the work on their phones, right,
so each person kind of touching, touching, each legislator, checking in,
checking my count, checking their account, and then eventually we
(17:42):
kind of had a really good idea of where we were.
And then I also think, and this is just my
personal opinion, but I think that a lot of legislators
saw how hard we were working on this, and I
think that that kind of swayed them in some instances too,
and that they said, you know, gee, this must be
a really this must be really important, because people were
just giving it They're.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
All, yeah, well, I have no doubt that without your help,
Representative Hakman vy Hill, we things would not have gone
as smooth as they did. At least whether or not
it would have passed, I can't necessarily predict, but I
think you deserve a tremendous amount of credit for Senate
Bill five getting through that House vote. And I'll just
(18:24):
say from a personal testimony, this is the first that's
not true. This is the first time I've been an
expert witness on a bill that actually was passed and
signed by the governor. I've been expert witness on bills
previously that didn't make it to the finish line. But
I'll say that when you get to the in committee,
as an expert witness, Judy, we had the opportunity to
field questions to respond, and there's a lot of technical
(18:47):
details in the bill, and there's a lot of nuances,
and it's not possible or realistic to expect every legislator
to understand every single specific detail about the things that
are dealt with in this bill. And that's why the
expert witnesses are so important. But when we're on the
house floor, or the Senate floor for that matter, the
expert witnesses don't have the opportunity to actually speak. So
(19:09):
when questions come up, or when misinformation sometimes arises or
misunderstandings are being vocalized by legislators in the debate process,
we're limited to trying to help explain the issue to
the bill sponsors, who then have to regurgitate the information
that we quietly whispered in their ear, and then they
deliver that back to exactly The other thing we don't
(19:34):
have the luxury of doing is moving as expert witnesses,
is moving around the house floor. So when I can
tell there's a legislator who doesn't fully understand the specifics
of one of the details of the bill, I so
badly want to just sneak over there and have a
very quick conversation and say, well, well, no, no, no, that's
not what this does. What it actually does is this.
(19:54):
But I don't have that luxury. But luckily we have
champions that have the ability to move around and have
those conversations and change those minds and provide that education.
And that's one of the ways I think Representative Hawkman v.
Hill that you were just absolutely instrumental in helping us
get this thing to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It was my pleasure. It was a really good bill.
It was a good piece of policy. You guys worked
really hard, you know, I was. I just kind of
see myself more as like a vessel or you know,
part of the machine to kind of put it all
together and make it work. But yeah, it really helps
having great experts, having great advocacy, having you know, all
the good information on your side. And also I want
(20:35):
to take an opportunity to kind of give kudos to
my caucus and that you know, we work really well
together and people are not afraid to ask questions and
stand up and say, you know, I don't really understand
this aspect of it, or hey, I heard this thing
that is troubling to me, and here's what it is.
And you know that kind of creating and cultivating that
atmosphere where people really step up and make sure that
(20:58):
they're making good decisions based on good information is really
like a big part of this process too, right, And
kind of creating an environment and cultivating the environment where
people feel comfortable doing that was a big part of that,
and I you know that's that's a lot of that
has to do with Speaker Martinez and Leader Skapanski as well,
and also our caucus chair just you know, creating an
environment where people feel comfortable to ask the tough questions
(21:20):
and get to a place where they they are willing
to commit.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So well, thank you so much for that. And you know,
we're so fortunate in New Mexico to have you in
our state legislature because it's maybe wouldn't be completely obvious
considering your professional role, but you are a conservation champion.
You've done so many things in the state legislature to
advance our conservation priorities. At the New Mexico Wildlife Federation
(21:44):
and across the entire New Mexico Conservation Coalition. One of
the things that we've worked on for a number of years,
probably since you were first elected, is wildlife corridors like
big big game migration corridors, wildlife crossings, finding ways for
wildlife to say fully cross roadways. Do you want to
talk a little bit about your your role throughout that
(22:05):
process over the years, because I think that's another place
where you have just been critical in helping us to
advance key conservation priorities.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Sure, yeah, so I conservation, climate change issues, conservation wildlife,
you know, and endangered protection and danger species species are
all really important issues in the district that I represent.
I have some incredible conservationists who live in House District
fifteen who have been instrumental in kind of teaching me
(22:35):
the importance of these issues. I come from a family that,
you know, we're very into stewardship, environmental stewardship, and so
that kind of with the confluence of I was before
I was the whip, I was appointed as the chair
of the House Transportation, Public Works, and Capital Improvements Committee,
which you don't think like that would have anything to
(22:55):
do with climate or wildlife or conservation, but it actually does.
And here's why. It's actually through infrastructure, I believe, and
I think a lot of us actually believe, is how
we're going to achieve, you know, our goals to get
to net zero in New Mexico by twenty fifty through
the Energy Transition Act. And so, you know, by supporting
(23:18):
smart infrastructure that can actually help us achieve those goals
as it relates to climate. And so the wildlife crossings
were first introduced to me by Senate pro tim the
President of the Senate, Mimi Stewart, who's been working on
the issue for several years. And before I was on
the Transportation Committee, I was on the Budget Committee, and
(23:38):
I learned a lot about, you know, the budgeting for
the Department of Transportation and all the stuff that they're
doing and so. And before that, I was a lawyer
working on automobile crash cases, and I had a really
tremendously terrible, awful case that involved wildlife on five point
fifty in New Mexico. Five fifty so, which is one
(23:59):
of which is where we put our first quarter right.
And it's it's not just a conservation issue, it's also
a safety issue, and it's also an economic issue as well,
because for every person that has a single car accident,
you know, an incursion with wildlife, that is, you know,
that's another accident that insurance has to pay for. That
(24:20):
increases our insurance rates. The more crash crashes you have
with wildlife, the more expensive these crashes become. A lot
of people don't know this, but in their like your
standard automobile you know, insurance policy, a lot of them
don't carry wildlife incursion. They carry exclusions for wildlife incursions,
(24:41):
and so if you get in a terrible accident with wildlife,
they're not going to pay for that. And so the
corridor kind of became like a common sense solution to
this problem, and that you know, why don't we save
both wildlife and the people who are getting in accents
with these wildlife a whole lot of heartache by just
creating these this infrastructure to allow the wildlife to cross
(25:04):
over these large roads without putting them in dangerous positions.
And it also allows for the migration and other like
environmental issues related to wildlife to kind of to play
out in New Mexico because there's a lot of really
important species that migrate throughout the state up into Colorado,
(25:26):
and this is just a way to kind of allow
them to do that in peace without kind of also
having all of the consequences that come with combining wildlife
and cars going fast on large highways, which is never
a good combination. So, you know, I was happy to
support the wildlife crossings as Chair of Transportation and continue
(25:49):
to because we're going to need more than just one,
and they are very expensive, but what they save the
state has to be considered as well, what they save
the state and what they say save New Mexicans in
terms of their insurance premiums all have to be taken
into consideration and when figuring the costs.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I think that was super well said. The initial
investment is significant, for sure, but I think it's just
that it's an investment, not an expense, and it pays
for itself long term. And when you were a Chair
of House Transportation back in twenty nineteen, that's when I
feel like we really developed the foundation for what will
become one of the largest and most successful wildlife crossing
(26:30):
programs that any state will ever implement in the country,
because we were the very first state to pass the
Wildlife Corridors Act in twenty nineteen, and again it was
your leadership that helped us accomplish that. And what the
Wildlife Corridors Act did then, was it it appropriated half
a million dollars for Department of Game and Fish and
Department of Transportation to work together on a comprehensive plan
(26:51):
that identified eleven hot spots with the highest incidents of
wildlife vehicle collisions, and as you said, the spot on
Highway five point fifty where you work that memorable case
has now become the location that's going to be the
state's very first major specific wildlife crossing, and it's going
to consist of a series of overpasses, underpasses, wildlife fencing,
(27:15):
and just this last session, and you are super helpful
in this Representative, we got a fifty million dollar appropriation
to get that project built. So the project is already
designed now it's going to be built. And the fifty
million dollars that New Mexico appropriated represents the largest single
appropriation of any state ever for a wildlife crossing. So
(27:36):
I just can't I can't thank you enough for all
of the incredible work you do on behalf of New Mexicans,
on behalf of your constituents, on behalf of wildlife and
the people who depend on wildlife. And I know you've
got another appointment. We have another five or ten minutes,
So Judy, anything else you'd like to add or questions
you'd like to ask.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I just really appreciate all your work, Representative. It really
beats a lot to all of us. I don't know
that I have anything to add specifically. I don't know
if you want to talk about the upshot of set
up Bill five and what ended up happening or what
goes on going forward. That's the only other thing I
can think of that we didn't talk about yet.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, I think sit at Bill five is really going
to be a transformation that all eyes across the country
are going to be on because it's such a major shift,
you know, when you change the entire structure of the Commission.
It's going to be interesting because we're developing the nominating
committee for the first time ever. We're implementing term limits
for the first time ever, you know, So there's a
(28:30):
lot of firsts going on, but it's super exciting, and
I think the execution of it's going to be going
to be a little tricky, but it's going to be
important for the advocates to remain involved. The coalition who
helped to get the bill passed is I think also
going to have to remain involved in helping to navigate
the process of establishing a nominating committee and answering questions
that come up in those kinds of things. So it's exciting.
(28:52):
This is a very exciting time for wildlife management. It's
exciting time for New Mexico to be a leader in
a space where Historically we've had, let's face it, our
commission has been dysfunctional, our agency has been under resourced,
Our agency has been underfunded. We're going through a process
right now. In fact, the comment deadline this podcast will
air June first, twenty twenty five, and on June ninth,
(29:19):
is the comment deadline for the State Wildlife Action Plan,
which is currently underway. And the State Wildlife Action Plan
is a plan that's existed for a long time. Every
state's required to submit one to the federal government in
order to get matching funds. And basically what we do
is we outline are the state agency, our State Wildlife
Agency now going to be the new Mexico Department of Wildlife,
which I'm super excited about, identify species of greatest conservation need,
(29:44):
and essentially outlines a plan of what they can do
to support those species. But historically they haven't had the
resources to actually implement the plan. So they developed this
State Wildlife Action Plan, submit it to the Feds, it
gets approved, and then it goes up on a shelf
and collects dust until they make another one and no
implementation ever happens. But because of Senate Bill five and
(30:04):
then ten and a half million dollars that's appropriated to
the agency over the next three years, specifically for work
on species of greatest conservation need, And because of the
Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, which gives the Department almost
three million dollars a year of funding for species of
greatest conservation need, another legislative effort where Representative Hawkman V.
(30:26):
Hill is very supportive. Because of these things, our agency
now has the resources to do things it's never done before.
So we're in a really, really exciting time in wildlife
management in New Mexico, and so much of it is
because of Yourepresentative, And I just I can't thank you
enough for all of the fantastic work you've done. And
we're just talking conservation and wildlife here today because this
(30:46):
is of course the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, but the
amount of work that you've done across the board in
so many different categories is just phenomenal and I can't
thank you enough for that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Thanks. Thanks both.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, do you have any any concluding thoughts, Representative, anything
else you'd like to add or leave our listeners and
your constituents with before we let you get off to
your next busy meeting.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
No, thanks, thanks for coming here today and talking about
this important subject and really excited to see what we
do next. I think this set a really exciting precedent
so well.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Thank you so much and super super eager to continue
working with you in the future. Ken, thank you enough.
I know it's a big sacrifice, as you mentioned earlier
in the show, you know where the last legislature left.
Where you're a volunteer, You're sacrificing tremendous amount of time
and energy and stress and lost sleep and all of
those things to support the people of New Mexico and
(31:40):
to support your constituents, and it really means a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Thank you. It's pleasure of a lifetime and I wouldn't
be here but for the efforts of folks like you
and your great advocacy. So thanks for all that you
do as well.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Thanks for listening to the Aahiva podcast produced by Drift
with Outdoors.
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