BLM updates grazing plan for Sonoran Desert National Monument

PHOENIX – The Bureau of Land Management today released a final decision on a resource management plan amendment, updating the Bureau’s administration of grazing in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The decision makes six grazing allotments available for short-term grazing authorizations under specific circumstances and as local conditions allow.

Under the decision, the BLM will only authorize grazing in years with above-average annual precipitation and forage production. The decision also requires BLM to analyze forage availability before allowing brief periods of grazing. If permitted, grazing will only be authorized for 30 to 60 days, as determined by the available forage, before conducting additional assessments to determine if grazing may continue.

“This plan update will allow BLM to better manage potential grazing in the Sonoran Desert National Monument by utilizing on-the-ground assessments to determine if there is sufficient forage for cattle and wildlife,” said Lower Sonoran Field Manager Fritz Mueller. “This lets us respond quickly to changing conditions, including annual variations in precipitation and plant production.”

The 2001 presidential proclamation establishing the monument directed BLM to determine if livestock grazing north of Interstate 8 was compatible with protecting the monument objects identified in the proclamation. The BLM completed a resource management plan and record of decision for the monument in 2012, which addressed grazing among other resource uses. In 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona remanded a portion of the 2012 plan back to the BLM. In 2020, the BLM issued a resource management plan amendment specific to livestock grazing; a legal challenge to the plan amendment prompted this phase of the planning effort.

Final documents, maps, and more information are available at the BLM National NEPA Register.