Scene from the 2nd annual Turquoise Trail Pack Burro Race May 6 in Cerrillos Hills State Park. Courtesy/EMNRD

By SARAH COTTRELL PROPST
EMNRD Secretary

On May 6, under a blue New Mexico sky, I stood next to a trail in Cerrillos Hills State Park as pack burros and their human partners raced by. The 2nd annual Turquoise Trail Pack Burro Race illustrated what New Mexico’s state parks do best: Bring people outside, provide education, and encourage economic activity in our parks’ gateway communities, from restaurants to guides and other outdoor recreation businesses. 

State Parks—a New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) division—celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. Since the first park at Bottomless Lakes in Chaves County  opened, we’ve expanded to 35 parks. Parks are in 25 out of 33 counties. Nearly three-quarters of all New Mexicans live within 40 miles of a state park. People love state parks and want to add more.

State parks are gems. But they’re also seriously under-funded and under-staffed. Our operating budget has yet to keep up with inflation. And some parks – including Cerrillos Hills, home of the annual pack burro race – have only one full-time employee and rely on two temporary, seasonal hires and dedicated volunteers to fill gaps. 

New Mexico has not substantially raised core State Park fees in the last twenty years. It still costs just $5 for any individual or family to enter a state park and enjoy the outdoors from morning to night. At Elephant Butte Lake State Park, New Mexico’s largest and most visited state park, it still only costs $8 per night to camp on its highly sought after sandy beaches. You’d pay at least twice that much in Colorado state parks. In addition, while recreational camping vehicles have grown more sophisticated and use more electricity, we have yet to pass those utility costs on to our visitors. 

While we don’t want to make the parks too expensive for anyone, we must have adequate funds to keep visitors safe and the parks in good condition.

We’re conducting a fees study, looking at how we can continue to make State Parks affordable while ensuring that they meet expectations in terms of staffing and facilities when you visit. The study should be completed before the end of this year. If it indicates a need to raise fees, we will provide opportunities for public feedback before implementing any changes. 

Outdoor recreation is a fast-growing economic driver in New Mexico. In fact, New Mexico’s outdoor recreation economy is outpacing the national average in three principal measurements: GDP, employment, and compensation, according to a 2022 U.S. Department of Commerce study. Based on that study’s data, the economic output for the outdoor recreation economy in New Mexico was a powerful $2.3 billion or 2.1% of the state GDP in 2021, an increase of $400 million over 2020. This is a higher growth rate than the industry saw at the national level. And state parks are “anchor tenants” in that economy.

To build on that growth, we need to increase our investment in our state parks, logically through a combination of slightly higher user fees and more robust legislative appropriations. That would allow us to get more people out to enjoy events like the Turquoise Trail Pack Burro Race.