Issues with public land access in NM

icgamer · Aug 23, 2019

So my sons and I have been lucky enough to pull deer tags in NM this year (specifically unit 32..i also got an elk tag in 34)...
anyway, my middle son and I have spent the last few Fridays with ONX trying to ride the highways and byways of our county roads, trying to figure out our way to get back to the state and BLM land we hope to hunt at the end of October and it's getting pretty frustrating.

Roads that look like they should be county roads, often confront us with "NO TRESPASSING" signs and the name of ranching operations.

We've phoned the regional game office and we've been treated kindly and funneled off to local game wardens to keep suggested new routes...that are still no good.

We're going to keep trying, but it's not looking good.

Now we've still got time but I'm wondering if this is a common occurrence for other hunters out there. We're really looking forward to this hunt and with one of my sons leaving for the military in the new year, this hunt is really important to us as a father/son milestone.

Just really frustrating as I'm not trying to hunt on this privately owned land, simply trying to transit through to get to clearly public land.

Blane17 · Aug 24, 2019

Look up your county gis maps and they will show the county roads, i dont know how it is there but i know plenty of ranchers post county roads where i hunt in wyoming hoping that they will keep a few extra people out.

icgamer · Aug 24, 2019

Thanks for the tip. I tried emailing the road dept in the county that seems to be giving us the most issues, but no response. They didn't seem to have much online but I'll double check that and if all else fails, I may have to show up and stand on someones desk, lol.

Cooper · Aug 24, 2019

Go into their maintenance shop and ask them, cause if they maintain it with taxpayers money, the taxpaying citizens have every right to use it

mossback50cal · Aug 25, 2019

You will find this to be a big issue in certain units in New Mexico......

*We are all in the same boat, just
wishing to be hunting right now!*

BrianID · Aug 25, 2019

I've seen this issue in NM. Landowners have locked roads to keep public out of certain areas. If the county has paid for maintenance on the road it is illegal to gate the road. It can be very frustrating.

bobby · Aug 26, 2019

What happens especially for elk is landowners sign their ranch up ans Ranch only then have their hunters hunt the land locked state or blm land happens all the time in most units and GF does nothing about it. Thousands of public acres landlocked being illegally hunted and we have no say or course of action other than to report it which does nothing.

Even if the road directly goes to the blm or state there has to be an easement granted ie the state or blm pays landowner to allow access , issue there is most want us out so such agreements are few and far between , landowners think they own a lot of land that isnt theirs because access is through them , so tech i guess they might as well just own the land cause we never sniff access.

Ive called several to see if i can just drive through 100 yards of road they have that blocks 10k acres and i have never not once been told yes

icgamer · Aug 26, 2019

I appreciate all the feedback, and I guess I'm not the first to have this type of issue.

I have kept my research up and I have found what I hope to be some level of relief for the area in question.

I found documentation showing one private landowner has a "trust" agreement with the state that allows hunters on their property for certain seasons. This in itself isn't so useful as their property isn't exactly where I want to hunt, but part of the documentation shows a route that is supposed to allow access and this route does go through the area I want to access...so that will be my investigation this week..

I'm trying to not just give up out of frustration, but how these private landowners seem to have strategically landlocked so much state/BLM land, well it's criminal.