KRWG Public Media is covering contested races around the region ahead of the November 3rd election. KRWGs Abigail Salas spoke with Michael Perry the Republican candidate for New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands.
Abigail Salas:
What in your background has prepared you for this office?
Michael Perry:
What in the background has prepared me for this office? So, my background is I have a specific degree in wildlife management from New Mexico State University, and I have 22 years as being a conservation officer throughout this state where I had 17 years in supervisory roles. I topped out as a major southern field operations, so I'd look after the whole part of the state. Now I'm a county commissioner, which has given me another layer of governmental experience. I actually have 29 years in government. And I'm on the Public Lands Advisory Committee for the National Association of Counties out of Washington, D.C. because of my background and my history and my education that gives me the sounding board to be a public advocate for public lands. So, I think those qualities give me a pretty good resume to be a candidate for the Commissioner of Public Lands.
Abigail Salas:
And what do you see as the top issues facing public lands?
Michael Perry:
Well, you talk about public lands. I think the biggest issue that we need to understand is that state land isn't necessarily public land. It's fee land, so you always have to pay a lease or an easement to get onto land. It gets thrown into public land associated with BLM and Forest Service property, and a lot of times they need to be managed together. And I'd like to manage those together on more of a watershed management and ecology type watershed management so we can manage all those systems as one instead of just managing the state land office and the Forest Service do something else in the BLM. So, I think one of the biggest issues right now is managing that whole watershed as one so we can decrease catastrophic wildfires on all landscapes and not just state land. So, I think we need to get a little bigger in our thought on how we manage the landscapes.
Abigail Salas:
How do you best propose to address those issues?
Michael Perry:
I think you have to get to a point where you're going to sit down and work with the constituents, and you're going to work with the land users. So, there's a lot of different landowners and there's a lot of different land users. You and I are both users and then there's landowners, BLM, federal and state. So, I think what we need to do is we need to sit down together even with the tribal governments and say how can we manage this structure, these lands to benefit us all instead of just benefit maybe one production or one energy subset. Getting at the table and having communications with everybody is I think where we need to be. We don't need to be right. We don't need to be left. We need to be with each other and for the people because if we don't make the landscapes better for the next generation, what good are we? What are we doing?
Abigail Salas:
With oil and gas prices fluctuating, how do you plan to protect that funding?
Michael Perry:
Well, the best way to protect that funding is to be predictable to the users. Right now, there's been a 20% production decrease on state land, and there's been 50% less producers on state land. And I'm told from those producers that's because of the regulatory overreach by the current state land office. Now what that has done is it made producers migrate onto BLM or private land because it's easier to deal with those land use owners and those landowners than it is to work with the state land office. So, I think what we need to do again is be a little more consistent and not operate so differently as an advocate but operate on a funding purpose, which we're also environmentally sound, because like I said, we have to take care of it for the next generation. But the most important thing is that's 50 to 52% of public funding and public hospital funding. So, we've got to maintain those outputs, or we're not going to have the funding for education.
Abigail Salas:
How do you plan to navigate data center infrastructure on state land?
Michael Perry:
I'm not a fan of data centers on state trust land typically, because there's already a use or there's already a lease on all the state lands like a cattle lease or a solar lease. So, if you're going to put a data center on it, you're going to permanently cover the use and the abilities of that landscape forever. So, I'm not a fan of data centers on state land.
Abigail Salas:
What else do you think is important for voters to know?
Michael Perry:
I think the most important thing voters need to know is they need to research your candidate, all candidates across the spectrum. And I'm talking all the way from governor candidate down to your county commissioners or city councilors. Look at their resumes, look at what they stand for, look at the degrees and the professional history that possess like I possess. I have 33 years of experience in natural resource management, supervisory experience, 12 years of experience owning my own business, which is called Wildlife and Habitat Prescriptions. The gentleman that I'm running against is 33 years old. So, we're vastly different in experiences. He says he has a life history of working but my 33 years is longer than his life, basically so, I would just encourage people to start looking at their candidates and research who's best for their needs.
