Safari Club International (SCI) applauds the decision of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service to reverse their proposed closure of 100% of the Bears Ears National Monument to recreational target shooting.

SCI and its partners challenged that decision as a violation of the John Dingell Jr. Act, which requires agencies to keep public lands open for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting. The more than 1.3-million-acre monument was open to shooting from its designation in 2016. In 2024, BLM and the Forest Service proposed a complete closure, claiming that unspecified "potential user conflicts" and unsupported environmental impacts justified the drastic action.

The hunting and shooting community immediately protested, as did the State of Utah and San Juan County. Among other reasons for the protest, the Dingell Act limits any closure of hunting, fishing, or recreational shooting to the smallest area for the least amount of time required to protect public safety, administration, or for compliance with other laws.

"The proposed closure was based on nothing more than politics," said SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. "But pushback from the hunting and shooting communities—and warning of a legal challenge—helped the agencies make the right decision."

“SCI is happy the BLM and Forest Service came to their senses and reversed this wrongheaded decision,” said SCI President John McLaurin. “With pro-sportsmen and women leaders coming to Washington, D.C. in short order, we look forward to decisions that prioritize hunting and recreational shooting access.”

Background:

In October 2024, the Biden-Harris administration promulgated a proposed Bears Ears National Monument management plan that would have closed off large swaths of public land to outdoor activities long permitted on Bears Ears, foremost among them recreational shooting and vehicle access, which would have substantially curtailed hunting access. In fact, the proposed management plan would have banned all recreational shooting across all 1.3 million acres of Bears Ears National Monument.