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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Stewart

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/18/2007

HB 1215

SHORT TITLE

University Of New Mexico Wild Friends

Program

SB

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$75.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

NM Department of Higher Education (HED)

Department of Game and Fish (DGF)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 1215 appropriates $75,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of the

University of New Mexico (UNM) for expenditure in FY08 for the Wild Friends Program at the

Institute of Public Law's Center for Wildlife Law to help students from 4th through 12th grades

understand the democratic process, develop good citizenship skills, and contribute to wildlife

conservation by involving them in public policy projects.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $75,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

general fund.

This specific subprogram request was not submitted by UNM to HED for review and is not

included in the department’s funding recommendation for FY08. However, HED did

recommend base recurring funding of $74,400 in FY08 for the overall Center for Wildlife Law

program.

House Bill 1215 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

HED indicates that the Center for Wildlife Law is the only national center dedicated to

education, research, and analysis of state, national, and international wildlife laws. Established at

the Institute of Public Law, University of New Mexico School of Law in 1990, the Center's

mission is to raise the level of understanding and discussion about wildlife issues through

interdisciplinary education, training, analysis, and publication on wildlife law and policy issues.

The Center for Wildlife Law began the Wild Friends Program with funds provided by the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation and the New Mexico State Legislature. Wild Friends is a wildlife education

program for rural and semi-rural youth. At-risk and other middle school students and senior

citizens are brought together for hands-on learning about wildlife issues and the legislative

process. A network of dozens of local and national organizations has collaborated to make this

program a success since 1991. Wild Friends began receiving state appropriations in 1994.

Currently there are 700 students from 18 schools in six counties participating in Wild Friends.

Wild Friends youth are recognized and respected for bringing people together on wildlife issues

and for facilitating the public conversation necessary to healthy communities and a democratic

society. Students learn how law and government work and how citizens can make their concerns

known to elected officials. They are taught about wildlife, habitat, and related issues. Students

are encouraged to express their views orally, in writing, and through performing arts. Mentors

are teamed up with the students to expose children to various careers relating to public policy,

public service, and wildlife.

Wild Friends partake in a variety of activities such as meeting with their legislators; conduct

imaginary legislative debates; draft legislation; take camping trips; write letters to legislators;

interview wildlife professionals and newspaper reporters; compose theater plays and puppet

shows; and testify at legislative committee hearings on legislation they authored.

GM/nt