The salient features of New Mexico’s elk management program, including the state’s introduction and efforts to build up the population of elk, the EPLUS (“elk private lands use system”), the mitigation assistance program, and the introduced elk becoming a nuisance, to private property owners are common in these type of things. But like a lot of what we call “wildlife” takings (like this and this, for example), the decision of the New Mexico Court of Appeals in Kiehne v. New Mexico Dep’t of Game and Fish, No. A-1-CA-42309 (June 3, 2026), does not go well for the owners.
Continue Reading Even Though They Have A “Relationship,” Those Elk The State Introduced Are Wildlife Not State Elk, So No Physical Taking When They Invade And Damage Private Property