BLM planning on restricting shooting in Sonoran Desert NM

[aroyobob]

I searched but didn't find posts related to this.

The BLM is preparing to close most of the Sonoran Desert National Monument to recreational shooting. There is a public comment period for this but it ends on July 21st. It's been a long saga going back at least 2012 when the BLM published a Resource Management Plan that allowed recreational shooting in the monument (created in 2001.) Various environmental groups have sued several times to force the BLM to reassess recreational shooting. The latest resulted in an April 2022 agreement where the BLM agreed to do another plan.

This time the BLM recommendation is to prohibit recreational shooting on all of the Sonoran Desert NM except for 4802 acres. This is Alternative C of 4 alternatives. The revised study and 4 alternatives are described in the DRAFT_RMPA document at the link below. The FONSI document is where they say what the preferred option is.

By way of area comparison, the 5 existing and proposed BLM shooting areas (Church Camp, Saddleback, Baldy, Box Canyon and Narramore Road) are only 4,109 acres.

Two PDF files and buttons to leave a comment are here:
https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ ... 019811/570

Map of "Alternative C." The only remaining shooting areas are the blue dots. I've circled the ones I think I see in red circles but the red circle is NOT the shooting area, the shooting area would be the blue dot.

[aroyobob]

BLM plans for Sonoran Desert National Monument (continued.)

Of the 4 plans, the BLM is recommending Alternative C (map in prior post.)

Alternative A: keep the current situation. Shooting is prohibited on 50,592 acres but permitted on 435,200 acres.

Alternative B: Shooting would be prohibited on an additional 287,225 acres in addition to the current 50,592 acres but would be permitted on 147,975 acres. In the map below the permitted shooting areas are in blue.

Alternative C: described in prior post, all shooting forbidden except 4,802 acres.

Alternative D: no shooting allowed at all.

[aroyobob]

If you want to leave a comment, click on the "participate now" button at this link. The comment period ends on July 21.

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ ... 019811/570

Note: write an original comment. They disregard comments that look like form letters.

[aroyobob]

About Alternative B, the one that leaves 147,975 acres available to recreational shooting.

They make the statement that Alternative B would protect all known cultural and heritage resources would be protected. One could make the comment that Alternative B strikes a balance between protection and allowing multi-use of the monument. They do go on to analyze the impact to wildlife and environmental impact (trash, lead, etc.,) compatibility with other forms of recreation, vegetation.)

Since all known sites would be located within areas unavailable to that activity, impacts to these resources would be eliminated. As a result, potential impacts to cultural and heritage resources under Alternative B would be to any yet-to-be identified, unrecorded sites within the 147,975 acres available for dispersed recreational target shooting, a reduction of 287,225 acres to such activity compared to the No Action alternative. Because there would be 287,225 fewer acres available, the risk of potential impacts to unrecorded sites would be across a smaller area and, consequently, to a smaller number of sites than under current management.
(from page 41-42 of the DRAFT_RMPA pdf.

[YNOTAZ]

Well, this kind of nails the BLM plans for Arizona. Just like Colorado, they want to eliminate shooting, so they will do everything in their power.

I can't wait for everyone sitting back doing nothing to say, "Geeez, when did that happen?"

[aroyobob]

Some background.
The BLM proposal stems from a 2019 lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. The 2019 suit said the 2015 management plan barely restricted shooting and blah blah blah the BLM needed to go back the drawing board. In April of 2022 the court agreed and ordered the BLM to do so. Being designated a National Monument was the kiss of death.

The proposed plan is the result. The guy in charge of the Lower Sonoran Field Office now started in August of 2022. He may have been brought in to oversee the new plan or it was just an accident. In any case I think he may report to Leon.

https://fronterasdesk.org/content/17742 ... l-monument

https://www.courthousenews.com/suit-cla ... e-trashed/

[aroyobob]

Well, this kind of nails the BLM plans for Arizona. Just like Colorado, they want to eliminate shooting, so they will do everything in their power.

I can't wait for everyone sitting back doing nothing to say, "Geeez, when did that happen?"

What they'll say, in proposing Alternative C, is that they didn't kill shooting entirely (so we can't say that.) And that they considered all the impacts (cultural stuff, animals, plants, environment, etc.,) so it met the conditions of the 2019 lawsuit and 2022 settlement.
Funny (or not funny) when they got done with that analysis, the area in green in the map was basically all the area where shooting didn't really impact any of the critical items.

That's almost identical to the area open in Alternative B - some 147,000 acres.

So to close that area they said, "well, there aren't good backstops for shooting in this area so we need to close it too." That's pretty much BS but that's the justification they used to make the green area off-limits. So that might be another angle for someone to comment on - why backstops don't need to always look like hillsides or big berms. This is described in Appendix A of the plan.

[YNOTAZ]

I'll have to do some reading on this. I've been focused on the west side of Phoenix but their oversteps here might help with our fight.

[aroyobob]

fyi - end of comment period is the 21st.
Looks like they changed the page with the comment links a few days ago. Convenient. :-\

Here's the federal register entry.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... l-monument

The federal register entry has a link to this page

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ ... 019811/510

Click on the "Participate Now" button on the left and then hit the "participate now" button for either of the two documents.

Scrolling to the right it looks like most people are commenting on the first document cause that has 20 comments at this time.

[aroyobob]

Only 25 comments on the draft RMPA document currently. Two days to go.

Just a quick comment would help.

[YNOTAZ]

Comment added. I was a little late to the party but joined because all of Arizona is important to us for recreational desert shooting.

[aroyobob]

fyi - additional time for comments. Follow the link and click on "participate now." 29 comments for the Draft RMPA document (the first one.)

The Draft EA/Draft RMPA and unsigned FONSI public review period extended by 15 days. Comments accepted through August 5, 2023.

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ ... 019811/510