Last year the BLM issued a draft revised management plan for the SDNM that proposed closing 99% of the monument to shooting.  That was a draft proposal.  

They just issued the "real" proposal which is not significantly different from last year's draft proposal.   Of the 4 listed alternatives they will implement alternative C which closes 99% of the monument to shooting.

In 2023 they proposed closing all of the monument to shooting except 4802 acres.
In 2024 the plan they will implement closes all but 5295 acres to shooting.  

There is a 30 day period (expiring on 2/22/2024) for filing a "protest."  Not sure what good that will do but it's there.

Here's a map from the current proposal showing shooting allowed areas (tiny blue circles outlined in red.)

Note the green shaded areas.  These are areas where shooting will be prohibited, not because there are any significant cultural or natural resources, but because they claim the areas lack suitable backstops for safe shooting.  

I think there are plenty of washes and low hills in these areas for them to be safe for recreational shooting.





Here's a link to the Federal Register announcement.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/22/2024-01063/notice-of-public-comment-period-on-proposed-recreational-shooting-closure-in-the-sonoran-desert#addresses

Here's a link to the BLM page with the current 2024 documents (and the 2023 documents) and links to enter a protest.

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2019811/510

Individual protest comments are great but more significant would be inquiries from Arizona members of congress.  

It is an election year so now is the time when the individual has the most leverage.  


Although most of the monument is in Arizona's CD7 (Raul Grijalva's,) CD9 (Paul Gosar) is right next to it so sending a note him.

CD2.  (Eli Crane,) which wraps around Phoenix south of South Mountain is also pretty close to the area.

CD 7. Paul Gosar's contact me page:  https://gosar.house.gov/contact/

CD 2. Eli Crane:  https://crane.house.gov/contact

CD 6. Juan Ciscomani:  https://www.juanciscomani.com/contact

CD8.  Debbie Lesko:  https://lesko.house.gov/email  
(yes, Debbie is leaving but it doesn't hurt to ask.)
       Anthony Kern:  didn't see a "contact me" button on Kern's site
       Ben Toma has a "contact me" button on his campaign website.:   https://bentoma.com/
       Maybe enough room to past the URL for this thread.

CD5.  Andy Biggs: https://biggs.house.gov/contact/email

CD1.  David Schweikert:  https://schweikert.house.gov/contact/

The BLM planning process:

The planning process for the RMPA/EA consists of the following steps:
•
Publish notice of intent (NOI), initiate scoping
•
Conduct scoping
•
Formulate alternatives
•
Analyze effects of alternatives
•
Prepare a draft RMPA/EA and finding of no significant impact (FONSI)
•
Provide a minimum 30-day public comment period       <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 2013
•
Prepare a proposed RMPA/EA and FONSI
•
Provide a 30-day protest period and resolve protests    <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<2014 - we are here.
•
Conduct a 60-day governor’s consistency review period with a 30-day appeal period
•
Prepare a decision record and RMPA
•
Implement, monitor, and evaluate plan decisions

What is a "protest" ?

There are three key points about a protest.

1.  A protest goes to the BLM Director instead of to the state director.  
2.  Any person who participated in the planning process and has an interest which is or may be adversely affected by the approval or amendment of a resource management plan may protest such approval or amendment.  
3.  A protest may raise only those issues which were submitted for the record during the planning process.


Here's the page that talks about submitting a protest.

There are links on this page to two pdf documents.  - the "checklist' document makes it clear the protest goes to the BLM Director, over the head of the state director.  The protest regulations link has the text that makes up points 2 and 3.  

https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest

So what does this mean?

If you submitted a comment during the 2023 comment period and raised some point about the proposed plan then you should be eligible to submit a protest but the protest topic will have to be some issue you raised in 2023.

Thanks for the info.  This really sucks and it doesn’t seem like there is much that we can do as it seems like their minds have already been made and they are just following the process.  I’ll submit a protest comment and get friends to do the same but seems like we need a more and someone with a bigger voice.

Thanks for the in depth post.