NM Game Commission names new Director of Department of Game and Fish

Jim Lane, chief of the Department of Game and Fish Wildlife Management Division, was selected as the agency’s new director Thursday by the State Game Commission. Lane will be responsible for overseeing a department with more than 300 employees and an annual budget of more than $34 million. His duties will begin Oct. 29, continuing the pursuit of the Department’s mission to conserve, protect, enhance, manage and propagate the state’s wildlife and its habitat for public recreation and food supply. Lane will replace current Director Tod Stevenson, who announced plans to retire this month after having worked 33 years with the Department, including three as director. As chief of the Wildlife Management Division, Lane was is responsible for a staff of 17 and an annual budget of $4.1 million. His division is in charge of big-game, habitat enhancement, wild turkey, small game, migratory bird, furbearer, bear and cougar programs. In three years with the Department, Lane has helped increase numbers of big-game licenses, improved communication within the agency and with sportsmen and landowners, established a four-year rule process to improve big-game and small-game management decisions, and initiated the process to delist endangered desert bighorn sheep. He previously worked with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources as an environmental scientist, wildlife division director, wildlife program coordinator and other positions. He holds a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Kentucky, and is a current member of the National Wild Turkey Federation and Ducks Unlimited...Press Release