It’s not every year that a state can protect and restore its natural resources or reimagine how they are managed. In its 2025 session, New Mexico state legislators had three such opportunities and admirably met the moment.
In no small part due to the efforts of Trout Unlimited, the legislature prioritized modern wildlife management, its water quality and the restoration of its streams and watersheds.
It need not be said but we’ll say it anyway: New Mexico’s trout are happy along with the anglers who fish for them.
With stalwart support from its grassroots supporters, TU’s policy team in New Mexico worked hard throughout the 2025 session in successful pursuit of three big conservation wins:
- with the passage of SB 5, New Mexico now has a modern wildlife agency with new funding to match an expanded mission;
- in the face of rollbacks to the federal Clean Water Act, the passage of SB21 authorized New Mexico to protect clean water on its own terms;
- finally, TU lobbied for increased state funding to restore New Mexico’s waterways, securing $5 million to meet increased demand for cleaner and higher functioning trout streams.
Drought is a fact of life in New Mexico, and these three initiatives will go a long way towards protecting the resilience of our natural ecosystems.
SB5 – The Wildlife Heritage Act
SB5 has been described as the most significant wildlife legislation passed in New Mexico since the founding of the Department. In addition to increasing revenue for fish and wildlife management, the bill reformed the state’s game commission and modernized the rules governing how wildlife can be managed.
Notably, the bill increased license fees for the first time in 18 years. A resident angler will have to pay $10 more for an annual fishing license beginning next year, and the Department will bring in an additional $9 million in annual revenue from hunting and fishing license sales. A growing population, a drying climate and more severe wildlife seasons have made managing New Mexico’s wildlife much more complicated and expensive.
Reflecting New Mexico’s evolving wildlife interests, the bill renames the Department of Game and Fish as the Department of Wildlife, the New Mexico’s Game Commission as the Wildlife Commission and mandates that a hunter/angler be seated on the Commission in addition to a conservationist, a tribal member and a biologist. SB5 also clarifies that the Wildlife Department has the authority to manage all the state’s wildlife, not just game species.
Compounding the financial benefits of SB 5, legislators also appropriated an extra $10.5 million to support the Department’s expanded mission, including funds appropriated specifically for the management of non-game species like the North American beaver.
Wildlife focus of this nature is long past due, and TU’s New Mexico team is proud to have played a role bringing it to fruition.
SB21- Surface Water Permitting Act
In its 2024 Endangered Rivers report, American Rivers named all New Mexico rivers as the most endangered in the country. This was due to the Supreme Court’s Sackett Decision, which reinterpreted federal clean water protections and left many of New Mexico’s waterways vulnerable to degradation, including headwater trout streams.
In granting the New Mexico Environment Department the authority to establish regulatory and permitting programs, SB21 empowers New Mexico to protect its own citizens from water pollution. The bill gives the state primacy over protecting its own waters; the state will assume permitting authority for the few waters still protected by the U.S. EPA.
River restoration funding
TU worked tirelessly during the 2025 legislative session to secure additional funding for the River Stewardship Program, a popular river restoration program administered by the New Mexico Environment Department.
In recent years, TU has led or participated in River Stewardship projects on several important streams including Chihuahueños Creek, Red River, Cimarron River, the Rio Chama, and Little Turkey Creek in the Gila Wilderness, comprising over 10 miles of improved trout habitat.
We know that restoration funding is always money well spent, which is why we are elated to see River Stewardship receive $5 million of additional funding in next year’s budget.
Hard work pays
It merits repeating that TU’s success at the legislature would not have been possible were it not for our chapter volunteers. Throughout the 60-day session, our policy team leaned hard on the chapters, who stepped up at every turn to write and call legislators, attend bill hearings and show up at the capital when asked. To the significant degree that TU helped usher these conservation outcomes across the finish line, our volunteers deserve a huge amount of credit.
We couldn’t have done it without them and New Mexico’s wildlife and the waters that support them are better off for it.