New Mexico Wildlife magazine Conserving New Mexico's Wildlife for Future Generations
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the Department’s Information Center team is still as busy as answer answering questions and e-mails from the public.
“We haven’t skipped a beat these past five months whether we are in the office taking calls or at home answering emails,” said Lisa Brejcha, former information center supervisor recently named special hunts supervisor. “We have two consistent essential staff members dedicated to answering calls for the entire agency, including all of the area offices since they are closed to the public.”
On average, Brejcha noted, the percentage of calls coming into the Santa Fe headquarters from all area offices is around five to ten percent of the total amount of calls handled or received. Two essential staff members are teleworking from home handling the public email ispa@state.nm.us for password resets, customer callbacks, emailing licenses, general questions, account changes, walking people through how to purchase a license online and address other issues.
The following three questions are among the three mostly commonly asked over the past several months:
First, we determine if the hunter would qualify for mobility-impaired (MI) certification or reasonable accommodation. A reasonable accommodation is applicable to individuals who have suffered a temporary medical condition/injury which directly impacts their ability to hunt safely and effectively during their specific hunt dates. A request form will be emailed or mailed to the hunter to complete the requested information and attach verification of your temporary medical condition, disability or injury from the appropriate institution or physician. The hunter must also include a signed and dated physician statement that specifies the necessity of accommodations for the specified hunt dates.
For an MI hunter, an individual must have a permanent impairment that limits his/her mobility to a walker, wheelchair or two crutches; severely restricts movement in both arms; and/or have a combination of permanent disabilities which cause comparable substantial functional limitations. We will mail or email an MI form that must be signed by themselves and their physician. The completed form with the original signatures must be mailed to our Santa Fe headquarters. An MI certification card will be mailed to the recipient which is valid for four years. The renewal process is exactly the same as described above.
2What is currently open for fishing?There are a lot of areas open for fishing and for day use only. Along with the answers to their specific area questions, we direct them to our website at wildlife.state.nm.us to click on Alerts under the Home dropdown to see current closures as well as links to our partnering agencies’ websites since information could change so rapidly. 3How do I download my E-tag
Download and install the New Mexico E-tag app from Apple Store or Google Play (maker of the app is Pixegon). Next, log into the app using the same credentials as the Game and Fish customer account. Please note, you must login to the app while there is internet connectivity. Do not close the app or logout either; it uses very little power. Let it run in the background. On the day of the hunt, the license(s) will show available automatically. Please note: Outside of the legal hunt dates it shows Unavailable.
When animal is harvested, open the app, click “tag my animal” and follow the prompts. It will give you a tag number to write on the durable material, i.e. surveyors tape, duct tape etc. Then, attach that to the animal. When the hunter gets back into internet service, the system will automatically upload the date and time of the kill.
