UPDATE: BLM Reopens Bears Ears to Shooters

They … don’t look like bear’s ears to me.

Well, well, well … what do you know? Sportsmen’s votes and voices count again!

Isn’t it strange how, all of a sudden, the voices of reason and freedom are being respected again? The latest example: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service have reversed their proposed closure of 100% of the Bears Ears National Monument to recreational target shooting.

As we reported back in October 2024, the more than 1.3-million-acre monument has previously been 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.

There were no studies done to justify closing down those 1.36 million acres. We learned this back in June 2024, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was working to dismantle shooting access at the Sonoran Desert National Monument. These were done by administrative fiat courtesy of unelected bureaucrats and were, essentially, a giant middle finger to hunters and shooters.

Safari Club International (SCI), as well as a number of notable conservation- and Second Amendment-focused groups, 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 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.”