Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2024 / Notices 3949 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[BLM_AZ_FRN_MO4500176275] 

Notice of Public Comment Period on 

Proposed Recreational Shooting 

Closure in the Sonoran Desert National 

Monument, AZ 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of comment period. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the John 

D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, 

Management, and Recreation Act of 

2019, the Bureau of Land Management 

(BLM) is giving notice of a 60-day 

public comment period on the proposed 

recreational shooting closure included 

in the Proposed Sonoran Desert 

National Monument (SDNM) Resource 

Management Plan (RMP) Amendment 

and Final Environmental Assessment 

(2023). 

DATES: The BLM will accept comments 

on the proposed SDNM target shooting 

closure included in the preferred 

alternative for 60 days. Written 

comments must be postmarked or 

electronically submitted to the BLM 

email address listed in the ADDRESSES

section no later than March 22, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

regarding the proposed recreational 

shooting closures, by any of these 

methods: 

• Email: BLM_AZ_

SDNMtargetshooting@blm.gov 

• Mail: BLM, Sonoran Desert National 

Monument, Attn.: RMPA EA, 2020 E 

Bell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85022. 

You may examine documents and 

maps pertinent to this proposal online 

at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanningui/project/2019811/510 or at the 

Phoenix District Office, 2020 E Bell 

Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tyler Lindsey, Lower Sonoran Field 

Manager, telephone 480–259–7436; 

address 2020 E. Bell Road, Phoenix, 

Arizona 85022; email tlindsey@blm.gov. 

Individuals in the United States who are 

deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have 

a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, 

TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 

telecommunications relay services. 

Individuals outside the United States 

should use the relay services offered 

within their country to make 

international calls to the point-ofcontact in the United States. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Proposed SDNM RMP Amendment and 

Final Environmental Assessment 

considered four alternatives with a 

range of acres available for recreational 

target shooting. The preferred 

alternative in the proposed amendment 

is Alternative C, which would close 

480,496 acres of public lands in the 

SDNM to recreational target shooting. 

Recreational target shooting would 

remain available on 5,295 acres of the 

SDNM. These lands are administered by 

the BLM Lower Sonoran Field Office. 

The proposed closure is for the smallest 

area necessary to ensure compliance 

with Presidential Proclamation 7397 

and protect the objects and values for 

which the monument was designated. 

The proposed closure was analyzed in 

the environmental assessment. 

The Sonoran Desert National 

Monument was established by 

Presidential Proclamation 7397 in 2001 

and contains approximately 485,791 

acres of BLM-administered public lands 

in Maricopa and Pinal counties, 

Arizona. The monument was created to 

protect an array of scientific, biological, 

archaeological, geological, cultural, and 

historic objects (66 FR 7354). 

The BLM completed the SDNM 

Record of Decision and Approved RMP 

in 2012. Under a March 2015 court 

order, the BLM was required to 

reanalyze the impacts of recreational 

target shooting in the monument. In 

2018, the BLM amended the RMP to 

allow dispersed recreational shooting in 

approximately 90 percent of the 

monument. That decision was 

challenged in 2019, and a settlement 

agreement in that case required this new 

planning effort. 

The BLM prepared the SDNM 

Recreational Target Shooting RMP 

Amendment and Environmental 

Assessment in response to the April 

2022 settlement agreement. The RMP 

Amendment considers whether and 

where recreational target shooting 

should be allowed in the monument, 

along with any associated management 

actions. In accordance with the 

settlement agreement, the BLM prepared 

a suitability analysis that considered 

those areas of the monument that are 

suitable for recreational target shooting 

based on the presence of monument 

objects, the resiliency of those objects to 

recreational target shooting, and 

topographic features. This information, 

in addition to public safety 

considerations and federal and state 

laws and regulations governing the 

discharge of firearms on public lands, 

helped inform the alternatives analyzed 

in the EA. 

The National Park Service and the 

Arizona Game and Fish Department 

participated as cooperating agencies in 

the development of the RMP 

Amendment. 

Following the public comment 

period, the BLM will respond to the 

substantive comments regarding the 

proposed recreational shooting closure 

in its decision document. See https://

eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ 

project/2019811/510. 

To afford the BLM the opportunity to 

consider comments on the proposed 

SDNM target shooting closures before 

approval of the Decision Record/RMP 

Amendment, please ensure your 

comments are received by the date 

listed in the DATES section. Comments 

may be submitted using the methods 

listed in the ADDRESSES section above. 

The proposed RMP Amendment and 

finding of no significant impact also 

include a 30-day protest period that 

begins with the 60-day Dingell Act 

comment period announced under this 

notice. Information on filing a plan 

protest is available online at https://

www.blm.gov/programs/planning-andnepa/public-participation/filing-a-planprotest. 

Before including your address, phone 

number, email address, or other 

personal identifying information in any 

comment, be aware that your entire 

comment, including your personal 

identifying information, may be made 

publicly available at any time. While 

you can ask us in your comment to 

withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, the 

BLM cannot guarantee that we will be 

able to do so. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 7913 and 43 CFR 

1610.2. 

Raymond Suazo, 

State Director, Arizona. 

[FR Doc. 2024–01063 Filed 1–19–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4331–12–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management 

[Docket No. BOEM–2023–0008] 

Procedures for Determining Bid 

Adequacy at Outer Continental Shelf 

Oil and Gas Lease Sales 

AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy 

Management, Interior. 

ACTION: Notification of procedural 

changes. 

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Ocean Energy 

Management (BOEM) has finalized 

revisions to its bid adequacy procedures 

to ensure the receipt of fair market value 

from Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil 

and gas lease sales. BOEM intends to 

assess bids using the revised procedures 

beginning with the first lease sale under 


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