Two roads contested out of six potential closures

PORTALES — New Mexico Game and Fish and state land officials want a Roosevelt County road to remain open for hunters to access.

County commissioners and private land owners say the road needs to be closed.

Out of the six county roads commissioners are looking to close, only two were contested on Tuesday: North Roosevelt Road AY and 22.

“That particular road, if it closed, that would eliminate about 1,120 acres of state land up there,” said Erik Nelson with the state land office. “If you guys are dead set on closing that road, I’d like to offer a few more options if that’s possible.”

County Manager Amber Hamilton told commissioners that Road Superintendent Ricky Lovato, who was absent from the Tuesday commission meeting, presented the county with two options for the closure of the road:

• Close a smaller section of the road from the base of the public domain on AY, or

• Close AY from New Mexico 89 all the way down to North Roosevelt Road 22.

The problem is the road is home to the land of Baca Ranch, managed by Brian and Sunni Osborn.

“I’ve talked to my bosses (ranch owners) several times on this issue, and their outlook on it is if you’re going to close the road, they want it all closed,” said Brian Osborn. “We have so much trouble down there with theft and people coming in from behind the ranch.”

Brian Osborn said the ranch lost a little over 900 gallons of unleaded gasoline and about 400 gallons of diesel last year to theft. He said they keep the gas tanks locked, but that doesn’t stop the theft.

“We have people come through there non-stop. People use it as a highway, and when we are working cattle, our pens are right in the middle of the road, and people come through there and leave the gate open, and our cows get scattered everywhere. Then we have to straighten things back up,” he said of further issues with the road.

Sunni Osborn added that their ranch already allows hunters access onto their private land during hunting season, so continuing to do so if AY is closed should not be an issue.

“If 22 can be left open coming in from the west to the ranch headquarters at least, that would allow access to that one small section (of state land) and still eliminate the access from the north,” said Nelson.

Clay Moyers with the Game and Fish Department added that his and Nelson’s concerns lie in the fact that Game and Fish has made agreements with land owners before, then property changes hands and the agreement is thrown out the door.

“We can definitely attempt to get into an agreement with the landowner, but agreements can fail, and agreements can expire, and we really don’t want to lose any of that access we are paying for,” Moyers said, adding that landlocked state land is a problem all over the state, and hunters are paying to be able to hunt on land they cannot gain access to.

“What I would propose from the (Game and Fish) department’s point of view would be the ability to speak again (with the ranch owners) the next time this comes up, and hopefully between now and then, we can discuss with the land owners what perpetual agreement we might come up with,” he said. “As long as we stay part of the conversation through this process, I’d appreciate it.”

The other roads listed for potential closure are South Roosevelt roads AV, AW, 4 and 16 1/2. No one contested the south roads during the meeting.

Commissioners are set to approve road viewers to look at the roads at the next commission meeting on March 21.

Hamilton told commissioners it would be ideal to select one group of road viewers to view all six roads or a group to view the south roads while another group views the north roads.