N.M. Stat. § 17-3-16 (2026)

    A. The director of the department of game and fish may provide special envelopes
and application blanks when a special drawing is to be held to determine the persons to
receive licenses. Money required to be submitted with these applications, if enclosed in
the special envelopes, need not be deposited with the state treasurer but may be held
by the director until the successful applicants are determined. At that time, the fees of
the successful applicants shall be deposited with the state treasurer and the fees
submitted by the unsuccessful applicants shall be returned to them.

   B. Beginning with the licenses issued from a special drawing for a hunt code that
commences on or after April 1, 2012:

      (1)    licenses shall be issued as follows:

           (a) ten percent of the licenses to be drawn by nonresidents and residents who
will be contracted with a New Mexico outfitter prior to application; and

          (b) six percent of the licenses to be drawn by nonresidents who are not
required to be contracted with an outfitter; and

      (2)     a minimum of eighty-four percent of the licenses shall be issued to
residents of New Mexico.

    C. If the number of applicants who apply for licenses pursuant to the provisions of
Paragraphs (1) and (2) of Subsection B of this section does not constitute the allocated
licenses for either category, then the additional licenses available may be granted to
another category of applicants. The director shall offer first choice of undersubscribed
hunts to residents, whenever practicable.

    D. If the determination of the percentages in Subsection B of this section yields a
fraction of:

      (1)    five-tenths or greater, the number of licenses to be issued shall be
rounded up to the next whole number; and

      (2)    less than five-tenths, the number of licenses shall be rounded down to the
next whole number.

    E. The fee for a nonresident license for a special drawing in a high-demand hunt
covered in Subsection B of this section shall be assessed at the same rate as a license
for nonresident quality elk or quality deer. As used in this subsection, "high-demand
hunt" means:

       (1)    a hunt where the total number of nonresident applicants for a hunt code in
each unit exceeds twenty-two percent of the total applicants and where the total
applicants for a hunt exceeds the number of licenses available based on application
data indicating that this criteria occurred in each of the two immediately preceding
years; or

       (2)    an additional hunt code designated by the department of game and fish as
a quality hunt.

  F. All antlerless elk hunts pursuant to this section shall be exclusively for New
Mexico residents.

  G. Hunts on all state wildlife management areas shall be allocated exclusively to
New Mexico residents.

   H. As used in this section, "New Mexico outfitter" means a person who has a
business:

      (1)     with a valid New Mexico state, county or municipal business registration
and a valid outfitter license issued by the department of game and fish;

        (2)   that is authorized to do and is doing outfitting business under the laws of
this state;

       (3)     that has paid property taxes or rent on real property in New Mexico, paid
gross receipts taxes and paid at least one other tax administered by the taxation and
revenue department in each of the three years immediately preceding the submission of
an affidavit to the department of game and fish;

       (4)      the majority of which is owned by the person who has resided in New
Mexico during the three-year period immediately preceding the submission of an
affidavit to the department of game and fish;

      (5)   that employs at least eighty percent of the total personnel of the business
who are New Mexico residents; and

        (6)    that has either leased property for ten years or purchased property greater
than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in value in New Mexico;

        (7)  that, if it has changed its name from that of a previously certified business,
the business is identical in every way to the previously certified business that meets all
criteria;

       (8)    that possesses all required federal or state land use permits for the hunt;
and

      (9)  that operates as a hunting guide service during which at least two days
are accompanied with the client in the area where the license is valid.
History: 1953 Comp., § 53-3-7, enacted by Laws 1964 (1st S.S.), ch. 17, § 7; 1996, ch.
89, § 1; 1997, ch. 119, § 3; 2011, ch. 186, § 5.

                                     ANNOTATIONS

Repeals and reenactments. — Laws 1964 (1st S.S.), ch. 17, § 7, repealed former 53-
3-7, 1953 Comp., relating to nonresident temporary fishing licenses, and enacted a new
17-3-16 NMSA 1978. The attorney general had ruled that Laws 1949, ch. 13, amending
17-3-13 NMSA 1978, had repealed by implication former 53-3-7, 1953 Comp. See 1949
Op. Att'y Gen. No. 49-5200.

Laws 1997, ch. 119, § 4 repealed 17-3-16 NMSA 1978, as enacted by Laws 1996, ch.
89, § 2, effective April 9, 1997. Laws 1996, ch. 89, § 2 provided for the repeal and
reenactment of this section, and was to become effective on June 30, 1999.

Compiler's notes. — Laws 1997, ch. 119, § 6 provided that in the event the act is not
enacted with the emergency clause, its provisions shall be made retroactive in operation
to April 1, 1997. Although the act was enacted with the emergency clause, it was not
signed by the governor until April 9, 1997.

The 2011 amendment, effective April 1, 2012, increased the percentage of licenses
issued to residents from seventy-eight percent to eighty-four percent; lowered the
number of licenses issued to nonresidents who use a New Mexico outfitter from twelve
percent to ten percent and to nonresidents who do not use an outfitter from ten percent
to six percent; required the director to offer unsubscribed licenses to residents; added
Subsection F to restrict antlerless elk hunts to residents; added Subsection G to restrict
hunts on state wildlife management areas to residents; and added Subsection H to
define "New Mexico outfitter".

The 1997 amendment, effective April 9, 1997, rewrote Paragraph B(1); deleted former
Paragraph B(2) providing for 3% of licenses issued to applications listing residents and
nonresidents; redesignated Paragraph B(3) as B(2) and substituted "seventy-eight" for
"eighty"; rewrote Subsection C; substituted "the percentages in" for "seventeen percent
or three percent in Paragraphs (1) and (2)" in Subsection D; and substituted the phrase
beginning with "and where" for "based on data for the two immediately preceding years;
or" following "applicants" in Paragraph E(1); and inserted "of game and fish" following
"department" in Paragraph E(2).

The 1996 amendment, effective July 1, 1996, designated the existing language as
Subsection A; and added Subsections B through E.

Administrative regulations inconsistent with this section. – As applied to the
issuance of licenses for bull elk hunting in the Valles Caldera Preserve, the regulations
found in 19.31.8.24 NMAC are inconsistent with this section, which specifies how
licenses issued through a special drawing must be allocated among state residents and
non-residents. 2003 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 03-06.
Valles Caldera Preserve Act does not supersede this section. – The legislature did
not intend that this section's requirements could be avoided by simply having the federal
Valles Caldera Preserve Trust conduct a special drawing, given Congress' express
intent that the Valles Caldera Preserve Act not supercede New Mexico's laws pertaining
to the issuance of hunting licenses; thus, the trust cannot use its authority to regulate
access to the preserve in a manner that interferes with the application of this section.
2003 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 03-06.

Application of "hunt code" to rule regulating the hunt of bighorn sheep. — Where
the current population levels of rocky mountain and desert bighorn sheep made it
impossible for the New Mexico state game commission (commission) and the
department of game and fish to assign a single hunt code to each hunt area during each
hunt window for the bighorn sheep hunting season without running afoul of the statutory
allocation requirements for resident and nonresident hunters dictated by NMSA 1978, §
17-3-16(B), the commission’s application of the term "hunt code" that combines the
rocky mountain bighorn sheep by sex and weapon type in several hunt areas and over
several hunt windows under one hunt code, and, similarly, that groups the hunting
season for desert bighorn rams in several hunt areas and over several hunt windows
under one hunt code does not violate this section. The commission’s application of the
term "hunt code" to its rules regulating the bighorn sheep hunting season is lawful, in
that it incorporates the elements [species, weapon type, time frame, specific hunt] that
make up the definition of "hunt code," while also giving effect to the requirements of §
17-3-16(B). New Mexico State Game Comm’n’s Application of the term "Hunt Code"
(4/5/22), Att’y Gen. Adv. Ltr. 2022-01.