Colorado: Recreational Shooting Targeted in Management Plan for Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the 210,000-acre Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area and the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness, located in Delta, Mesa and Montrose counties of western Colorado.  

The Draft RMP analyzes five alternatives covering all aspects of BLM resource management within the National Conservation Area boundaries, including recreation, travel management, resource protection, wildlife habitat, special designations and livestock grazing.

Hunting will continue in accordance with Colorado Parks and Wildlife regulations, but all five planning alternatives call for some level of closure to recreational shooting, including total closure (Alternative B).  The RMP displays a chart showing how recreational shooting will be affected.  The chart can be found in Section 2.6 “Alternatives Matrix.”

Information about the plan and the plan itself can be found here. 

The BLM has extended the public comment period to September 23, 2013.  Attached are comments that the NRA and several other national hunting and shooting sports organizations filed on the RMP.  To submit comments you may do one of the following: 

• Email
• Fax to (970 244-3083
• Mail to Dominguez-Escalante NCA, Bureau of Land Management, 2815 H Road, Grand Junction, CO 81506

For those who depend upon the Dominguez-Escalante for recreational shooting or sighting in their firearms ahead of hunting season, this comment period is a very important opportunity to make your views known about how the BLM will manage these lands into the future.