As of Jan. 17, the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, joined by Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the agency’s arbitrary closure of the near entirety of the Sonoran Desert National Monument to recreational shooting. In a June 2024 agency action, BLM closed 99% (over 480,000 acres) to recreational target shooting – a drastic and arbitrary change for the monument which was previously 90% open to recreational shooting.
“BLM has conveniently forgotten its multiple-use mandate, which includes recreational shooting on BLM lands,” said Dr. Todd Adkins, Senior Vice President at the Sportsmen’s Alliance. “In fact, 99% of all BLM land nationwide is open to recreational shooting. Yet, BLM caved to a sue-and-settle scheme on the Sonoran Desert National Monument then badly justified its 180-degree shift in this rulemaking.”
A 2018 resource management plan for the Sonoran Desert National Monument found that recreational shooting was a compatible activity on 90% of the monument. That plan was challenged by radical preservationist groups, and BLM settled, agreeing to potentially amend the plan while considering the groups’ proposed alternatives. BLM began the scoping process in 2022, and in 2024, they proposed a new resource management plan that adopted the preservationists’ alternatives and then some. This plan was finalized in June 2024.
“The 2024 Sonoran Desert National Monument resource management plan is unlawful in more ways than one,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel at the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “BLM did not provide sufficient notice that it was undertaking such a closure, and its reliance on certain state laws and geographic features in making its decision is arbitrary and capricious. We’re asking the court to make BLM try again – hopefully, the third time’s a charm.”
The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation exhausted administrative remedies prior to filing suit. The Alliance is a member and current chair of the Federal Lands Hunting and Shooting Sports Roundtable – a collaborative effort among conservation organizations and federal land management agencies aimed at “planning and implementing mutually beneficial projects and activities related to hunting … and shooting sports conducted on federal lands.” Roundtable members formally protested, as prescribed for by law, the amended resource management plan, and the protest was denied. Litigation is the only available next step.
