The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation joined a collaborative group of nine other conservation and sportsmen organizations protesting the closure of recreational shooting within Bears Ear National Monument in southeastern Utah.
In a letter to the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the monument lands covering more than 1.3 million acres, the group says the action to prohibit recreational shooting violates the Dingell Act. Passed into law in 2019, the Dingell Act requires the BLM and U.S. Forest Service to consider recreational shooting, hunting and fishing opportunities as part of their management plans, plus any closures of federal land must be for the smallest area for the least amount of time.
RMEF and the other entities are part of the Hunting and Shooting Sports Roundtable, a group formed by a Memorandum of Understanding with BLM and other federal land agencies to address hunting and shooting access on multi-use federal lands.
Other members of that roundtable group in opposition are the Archery Trade Association, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Boone & Crockett Club, Dallas Safari Club, Delta Waterfowl, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation and National Wild Turkey Federation.
“There is nothing in the final rule to suggest that the BLM carefully considered alternatives, as required under the Dingell Act, and thus it appears the agency decided to take the most politically expedient route instead of what is required by law,” according to the protest letter.
(Photo credit: Bureau of Land Management/Cindy Gallo)