BLM issues decision on Sonoran Desert National Monument target shooting

PHOENIX – The Bureau of Land Management has issued a final decision to approve an amendment for dispersed recreational target shooting in the Sonoran Desert National Monument Resource Management Plan. The amendment seeks to protect human health, safety, and important resources by adjusting where target shooting is available in the monument. The amendment makes recreational target shooting available on 5,295 acres of the monument and unavailable on the remaining 480,496 acres.  

“The BLM worked to find a safe balance between various recreational uses of public lands while protecting objects of historic or scientific interest in the national monument,” said Phoenix District Manager Leon Thomas. “We continue to explore ways to enhance opportunities for recreational shooting on other public lands in Arizona, such as our new shooting sports sites in the metro Phoenix area.” 

The resource management plan amendment only applies to dispersed recreational target shooting on BLM lands within the monument. It does not affect hunting in the monument or recreational shooting on other BLM-managed lands in Arizona. More than 93.8% of the 12.1 million acres of BLM-managed public lands in Arizona remain open to dispersed recreational target shooting. 

The monument was established by Presidential proclamation in 2001. The BLM completed a resource management plan for the monument in 2012. A March 2015 court order required the BLM to reanalyze the impacts of recreational target shooting in the monument. In 2018, the BLM amended the resource management plan to allow dispersed recreational shooting in certain areas of the monument. That decision was challenged again in 2019, which resulted in the April 2022 court settlement and current planning effort. In accordance with that settlement, the BLM considered areas of the monument suitable for recreational target shooting based on the presence of monument objects, the resiliency of those objects to recreational target shooting, and topographic features. 

Final documents, maps, and information on the planning process are available at the BLM National NEPA Register.