State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico 22 November 2016 i State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico 22 November 2016 This page intentionally left blank ii State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico 22 November 2016 State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico Recommended Citation: New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. 2016. State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. To obtain copies of this document, visit www.wildlife.state.nm.us or write to: New Mexico Department of Game and Fish P.O. Box 25112 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504 Civil Rights and Diversity Compliance Certain programs of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish receive federal funds from the US Department of the Interior. These programs are subject to requirements of the New Mexico Human Rights Act and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. These acts prohibit discrimination because of ancestry, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, or physical or mental handicap. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility, please contact either of the following offices. • New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, ADA Coordinator, PO Box 25112, Santa Fe, NM 87504. • Office of Equal Opportunity, US Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 20240. The Department of Game and Fish will schedule public meetings and operate facilities that are accessible to physically impaired persons. Reasonable accommodations will be made for other impairments, including hearing and sight. If special aids are required, call (505) 476-8027 or write to the NM Department of Game and Fish, PO Box 25112, Santa Fe, NM 87504 at least three working days prior to the meeting date. To initiate a complaint, write to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Federal Assistance, 4401 Fairfax Drive, Mail Stop: MBSP-4020, Arlington, VA 22203 iii State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico 22 November 2016 Preface This State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) represents the 2016 revised assessment of New Mexico’s wildlife and their habitats by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. It is based on a review and revision of the 2006 Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy for New Mexico (CWCS). Both the CWCS and SWAP are non-regulatory planning documents that rely on the best available science, including the expert opinion of Department biologists, to provide a high level view of the needs for and opportunities to conserve New Mexico’s wildlife and their habitats. It looks at the variety of species and the range of habitats, their status, potential threats or constraints, and potential conservation actions to keep species secure. By synthesizing this information, the Department hopes to provide conservation practitioners with a document that can help them to recognize needs, identify opportunities, and develop actions that can help conserve and enhance wildlife populations and their habitats in New Mexico. This document also qualifies the Department to participate in the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s State Wildlife Grants (SWG) Program. The SWAP addresses, and is organized around, the eight required elements identified by the SWG Program. The main components include: a brief overview of New Mexico; an identification and assessment of wildlife species and key habitats; a review of threats and potential conservation actions; an overview of climate change; detailed descriptions of the six ecoregions that make up the State; a review of monitoring efforts; plans for implementing the SWAP; literature cited; and appendices. The key themes of the document include wildlife species that warrant heightened attention (Species of Greatest Conservation Need-SGCN), the full suite of habitats found within New Mexico, what can be done to conserve them, and Conservation Opportunity Areas (COAs) where conservation efforts could be especially beneficial. The Department staff reached out to interested entities and agencies with significant land management, government, or educational responsibilities in New Mexico. Eleven state and federal agencies and entities participated in a Core Team that met regularly and helped guide resource evaluation and assessment, planning, organization, preparation, and draft SWAP review. The various members of the Core Team brought diverse perspectives on species and habitat conservation planning, institutional mandates, stakeholder opinions, and desired outcomes from the document. The members of the Core Team are identified in the Acknowledgements and Appendix B. Information about SGCN is found in Chapter 2, Chapters 5-11, and Appendices F and G. Key habitat information is introduced in Chapter 2, detailed habitat descriptions and the distribution of habitats within each COA can be found in Chapters 5-10. This document is organized around ecoregions which are described in Chapter 2 and detailed in Chapters 5-10. Threats to species and habitats are described in Chapter 3 and referenced in Chapters 5-10. Climate change is considered at a statewide level and is described and analyzed in Chapter 4. General conservation actions to address threats to habitats and species are described for each threat in Chapters 5-10. This document layout helps users to approach conservation from the perspectives of species, habitats, ecoregions, threats and/or conservation actions. iv State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico 22 November 2016 Executive Summary New Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse states in the nation, home to over 6,000 species of animals that occupy habitats from hot deserts to alpine tundra. Maintaining the viability of every species is difficult and some have declined and are now listed as Threatened or Endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The State Wildlife Grants (SWG) and Tribal Wildlife Grants Programs were initiated by Congress as proactive and collaborative means to keep common species common. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (Department) began participating in SWG in 2002, when work began on the Department’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS). The CWCS was approved by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 2006. The CWCS and this revised State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) address eight required elements and fulfill SWG legislative requirements. The elements include: 1. the distribution and abundance of species of wildlife, including low and declining populations as each State fish and wildlife agency deemed appropriate, that are indicative of the diversity and health of wildlife of the State (in subsequent discussions, these species were referred to as Species of Greatest Conservation Need or SGCN); 2. the location and relative condition of key habitats and community types essential to the conservation of each State’s SGCN; 3. the problems which may adversely affect SGCN or their habitats, and priority research and surveys needed to identify factors which may assist in restoration and improved conservation of SGCN and their habitats; 4. the actions necessary to conserve SGCN and their habitats and establish priorities for implementing such conservation actions; 5. the provisions for periodic monitoring of SGCN and their habitats, for monitoring the effectiveness of conservation actions, and for adapting conservation actions as appropriate to respond to new information or changing conditions; 6. each State’s provisions to review its Plan at intervals not to exceed 10 years; 7. each State’s provisions for coordination during the development, implementation, review, and revision of its Plan with Federal, State, and local agencies and Indian Tribes that manage significant areas of land or water within the State, or administer programs that significantly affect the conservation of species or their habitats; and 8. each State’s provisions to ensure public participation in the development, revision, and implementation of its Plan. The SWAP is a non-regulatory planning document that provides a high level overview of the status of species and habitats in New Mexico and will allow the State to receive federal aid to help secure the status of SGCN. The Department relied on the best available science, including species experts, to assess and select species, habitats, threats, and conservation actions. The process began with review of the status of >1400 species catalogued in the Biota Information System of New Mexico (BISON-M; www.bison-m.org). As a result of this assessment, 241 species (including 154 arthropods) were removed and 24 species were added to the original 2006 CWCS SGCN list. Species were included on the revised list if they were declining, vulnerable, endemic, disjunct, and/or keystone. Each SGCN was then placed into one of five categories to provide guidance regarding the timing and approach for implementing conservation actions. The new SGCN list includes 39 Category I (Immediate Priority), 52 v State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico 22 November 2016 Category H (Limited Habitat), 52 Category S (Susceptible), 55 Category D (Data Needed), and 37 Category F (Federally-listed) species . New Mexico’s size and biodiversity make statewide conservation planning and implementation impractical. Thus, threats and conservation actions were identified for each ecoregion. Conservation actions include: determining trends, distribution, and status of SGCN; restoring habitats and SGCN populations and gaining public support for these actions; reducing habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic disturbance;