BLM Closed 99 Percent of National Monument to Recreational Shooting After Settlement
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.
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