NM Outdoor News

LOS OJOS, N.M. — Snagging season for kokanee salmon opens at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 14 at Heron Lake, Willow Creek and the Pine River above Navajo Lake. The Department published conflicting opening dates in the 2008-2009 Fishing Rules & Information Booklet. According to state fishing rules, the opening date always is the second Friday in November.

Kokanee snagging season opened Oct. 1 at Navajo Lake, Abiquiu Lake, El Vado Lake, Eagle Nest Lake and the Chama River from El Vado Lake to the west boundary of the Rio Chama Wildlife and Fishing Area. The season ends Dec. 31 in all waters statewide. The bag limit is 12 salmon per day, 24 in possession.

Some waters open later than others for kokanee snagging to give fisheries crews time to harvest and fertilize eggs that will be hatched and raised for future stockings. Kokanee are land-locked sockeye salmon that thrive in New Mexico’s cool lakes. In late fall, mature 4-year-old kokanee form giant schools, spawn and then die.

Because the fish do not feed during the spawn, snagging is allowed to harvest them. Anglers are reminded that only kokanee may be taken by snagging. Any other species caught by snagging must be immediately returned to the water.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES — The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish will conduct a public meeting Nov. 13 in Truth or Consequences to discuss the history, status and future of desert bighorn sheep recovery efforts in New Mexico.
 
The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at the City Commission Chambers in the Civic Center Complex, 405 W. Third, in T or C. 

Desert bighorns were placed on the New Mexico endangered species list in 1980, and by 2001 there were fewer than 170 bighorns in herds statewide. Transplants, cougar control and monitoring helped increase the population to more than 400 this year, prompting a proposal to downlist the bighorns’ status from endangered to threatened.

The first bighorn sightings in the Caballo Mountains were in 2003 when sheep apparently migrated south from the Fra Cristobal Mountains east of Elephant Butte Lake. A 2008 survey counted 24 bighorns in the Caballos, but the survey covered only part of the mountains, so there could be more.

To further efforts to eventually delist the species, the Department is considering options to augment the existing Caballo bighorn herd with future transplants. Department biologists will be available at the meeting to discuss the possibility and how it may benefit surrounding communities.

For more information about desert bighorns in New Mexico, please visit the Department website, www.wildlife.state.nm.us and click on the conservation tab. Information also is available by calling Bighorn Sheep Biologist Elise Goldstein, (505) 476-8041.

TAOS – A native New Mexican once found in streams and rivers throughout the state has returned home after a 60-year absence. Five river otters were released today in the waters of the Rio Pueblo De Taos on Taos Pueblo.

The wild otters were trapped and transported from Washington by USDA Wildlife Services and Taos Pueblo as part of a larger otter reintroduction program organized by Taos Pueblo, The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the New Mexico Friends of River Otters, a coalition of citizens, agencies and conservation organizations dedicated to restoring otters to the state.

“Protecting and restoring native wildlife is important to the heritage and ecology of New Mexico, and one of the main roles of the Department of Game and Fish,” Department Director Bruce Thompson said. “Today’s release is a positive first step in an effort to return otters to watersheds across the state.”

River otters are highly social, playful, semi-aquatic members of the weasel family. They are believed to have once inhabited the Gila, upper and middle Rio Grande, Mora, San Juan and Canadian river systems and occasionally were mentioned in the journals of early settlers.

There have been no confirmed sightings of river otters in the state since 1953. Decades of trapping and habitat loss are believed to be two factors in their disappearance. Current regulations require trappers to release any otters caught in traps.

“We are so thrilled to see this species back in New Mexico,” said Linda Rundell, state director for the Bureau of Land Management. “We’re working with partners throughout the state to restore watersheds and wildlife habitat; the icing on the cake comes when we can restore species like the river otter to their rightful place in New Mexico.”

Twenty states, including Arizona, Colorado and Utah have successfully reintroduced river otters. River otters and other predators play important roles in keeping communities of native species robust and diverse.

“We are extremely excited that Taos Pueblo has taken the initiative to ensure that our playful furbearing friends are once again diving and swimming in the Upper Rio Grande Watershed,” said Melissa Savage with the New Mexico Friends of River Otters.

In 2006, the State Game Commission directed the Department of Game and Fish to initiate efforts to restore otters to state waters. A Department study identified several rivers as suitable restoration sites, including the Upper Rio Grande, White Rock Canyon and Middle Rio Chama in the Rio Grande Basin; and the Upper Gila, Lower Gila and Lower San Francisco rivers in the Gila River Basin.  A second, larger release is scheduled on the main stem of the Upper Rio Grande in November.

The New Mexico Friends of River Otters, a coalition of government agencies and conservation organizations, plans to release additional otters. Members include Amigos Bravos, Earth Friends Wild Species Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Four Corners Institute, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

TAOS — Wild river otters will be swimming and playing in the Rio Grande for the first time in decades next week when Pueblo de Taos, USDA Wildlife Services and the Department of Game and Fish release five otters imported from Washington State.

The adult otters will be released in the Rio Grande Box on Pueblo de Taos land. USDA Wildlife Services planned to deliver the otters to the Pueblo on Sunday. The Department of Game and Fish will allow the animals into the state after reviewing the required health certifications.

Darren Bruning, a Wildlife Services biologist, and Jim Stuart, Department of Game and Fish mammalogist, said the otters will be held in a confinement area for a few days before they are released. 

The release will be the first of several planned by the Department and a diverse group of conservation  partners, including Taos Pueblo, USDA Wildlife Services, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico Friends of River Otters, the Department of Game and Fish, and others.

In August 2006, the State Game Commission directed the Department of Game and Fish to proceed with plans to reintroduce river otters to sections of the upper Rio Grande and the upper Gila River. There have been no confirmed sightings of native river otters in the state since the 1950s, but recent reports indicate some otters have migrated to Navajo Lake from Colorado, where they were reintroduced in the 1980s.

The Commission action followed a feasibility study that indicated otter reintroduction efforts could be successful in state waters that formerly were in the otters’ historic range. The study was the result of research by and collaboration with a diverse group of government agencies, the New Mexico River Otter Working Group and members of the public.