State Lands

[Coloradoshedhead]

I’m trying to gain some knowledge on the status of the state land available to hunt in New Mexico as a whole and 16C specifically. From what I can gather via the NMDFG website the blue ground hatched out with green lines states that there is an agricultural lease. Does that mean there is no hunting allowed if it is leased?
Also I can’t decipher who owns the light brown colored ground in the screenshot?
Onx doesn’t really help with private ownership and I understand that to be (from other research in Colorado) Catron County doesn’t supply them with that specific data.
Can anybody help me with this and/or set me straight on if what I’m reading into this is true?

 

[bobbydean]

I live here and have no clue. Never hunted state lands.

 

[hank4elk]

I do know that place & the light brown there is BLM land that is cattle lease. Huntable, campable,accessable from roads.
Blue is state.No camping,very limited access except on foot.
White or blank is private lands & you are right ,Catron county does not list names of owners. Probably the only county not to provide info to onxmaps...
I tried downloading the new NMG&F mapping system with no success. Same with new BLM & state systems. No success....
I had old maps & system down pat on old pc. Now I have some "apps" that do nothing or cannot be accessed on new pc....lol
I use my paper maps & onxmaps. BLM & USDA-FS ,maps.
I too dislike hunting state lands in NM...can never find out who has the currant lease or if it is still state land or not. Most of the ranchers here act like their leases are private land too.
Tried to talk to guy that used to run the system here for the state & he is no longer around. Socorro BLM field office had direct link to him before...

 

[mrcowboy]

Few years back while hunting in (16e) Catron, I spent a good part of the day looking up land ownership thru Catron county tax assessor office website. I had to use the Township and range info from NM tate Land office to pin point who owned what. I coded my BLM maps with this info.

 

[hank4elk]

I spent a few days there getting info to put together ranch co-ops & finding properties for propane delivery & for appraisers/realtors.

Few years back while hunting in (16e) Catron, I spent a good part of the day looking up land ownership thru Catron county tax assessor office website. I had to use the Township and range info from NM tate Land office to pin point who owned what. I coded my BLM maps with this info.

 

[TLowell02]

Few years back while hunting in (16e) Catron, I spent a good part of the day looking up land ownership thru Catron county tax assessor office website. I had to use the Township and range info from NM tate Land office to pin point who owned what. I coded my BLM maps with this info.

This was the same thing I did for Rio Arriba and Taos counties for figuring out what properties held unit wide tags. Dang near was a full time job.

 

[abqbw]

You can hunt almost all State Trust Land in New Mexico if you can obtain legal access (public road/land or permission to cross private). You can hunt the agricultural lease you posted if you can get public access. You can’t hunt State Trust Land that is under what is called a business lease without permission from the lessee.

 

[abqbw]

This is what State Land closed to hunting looks like on the State Land Office interactive map you are using.

This closure is an interesting and scandalous tale. It is state land leased by the Wedding Cake Ranch. The state of New Mexico moved Bighorn sheep to this private and state land ranch. The ranch just happened to have been owned by a former State Game Commissioner, Leo Simms. After the sheep were moved there Leo Simms under very suspect (corrupt) conditions managed to be granted a business lease for the state trust land. The business lease closed the state trust land to hunting for anyone that didn’t have Leo’s permission. It basically made the state land part of his private ranch. If and when hunting of the translocated bighorn sheep began it was largely Leo Simms private herd. Hunting would go through Leo Simms. Leo Simms tried for years to obtain private landowner bighorn permits. But NM Game and Fish held out and didn’t give them to him unless he relinquished his state land business lease. Surrounding landowners agreed to allow public draw hunters access to their private lands as part of their bighorn land owner permit agreements. They have been exceptionally generous to the public draw hunters. But Leo Simms held out on his state trust lands business lease and NM Game and Fish held out on private landowner permits. Leo croaked. The multi-billionaire Louis Bacon bought the Wedding Cake Ranch, kept the business leases on the associated state trust lands keeping public draw hunters locked out, and was quickly after buying the ranch granted private landowner bighorn sheep permits by the NM Department of Game and Fish. It’s good to be a billionaire landowner in the good ol’ USA.

My understanding is that public draw hunters are now granted access for bighorn hunting to the wedding cake ranch. But not to the degree and with the outright assistance of the other two landowners that share in the private land and public draw bighorn permits for this Dry Cimarron sheep herd.

 

[Coloradoshedhead]

This is what State Land closed to hunting looks like on the State Land Office interactive map you are using.

This closure is an interesting and scandalous tale. It is state land leased by the Wedding Cake Ranch. The state of New Mexico moved Bighorn sheep to this private and state land ranch. The ranch just happened to have been owned by a former State Game Commissioner, Leo Simms. After the sheep were moved there Leo Simms under very suspect (corrupt) conditions managed to be granted a business lease for the state trust land. The business lease closed the state trust land to hunting for anyone that didn’t have Leo’s permission. It basically made the state land part of his private ranch. If and when hunting of the translocated bighorn sheep began it was largely Leo Simms private herd. Hunting would go through Leo Simms. Leo Simms tried for years to obtain private landowner bighorn permits. But NM Game and Fish held out and didn’t give them to him unless he relinquished his state land business lease. Surrounding landowners agreed to allow public draw hunters access to their private lands as part of their bighorn land owner permit agreements. They have been exceptionally generous to the public draw hunters. But Leo Simms held out on his state trust lands business lease and NM Game and Fish held out on private landowner permits. Leo croaked. The multi-billionaire Louis Bacon bought the Wedding Cake Ranch, kept the business leases on the associated state trust lands keeping public draw hunters locked out, and was quickly after buying the ranch granted private landowner bighorn sheep permits by the NM Department of Game and Fish. It’s good to be a billionaire landowner in the good ol’ USA.

My understanding is that public draw hunters are now granted access for bighorn hunting to the wedding cake ranch. But not to the degree and with the outright assistance of the other two landowners that share in the private land and public draw bighorn permits for this Dry Cimarron sheep herd.

Good information to know, thanks for the help.