Colorado: Plan for Federal Lands in Grand Junction Area Will Close Lands to Recreational Shooting

The Bureau of Land Management’s Grand Junction Field Office (GJFO) has released a draft management plan for public comment.  The planning area consists of more than 1 million surface acres, of which the majority is in Mesa and Garfield Counties, with small amounts in Montrose and Rio Blanco Counties.

When approved, this Resource Management Plan (RMP) will replace the 1987 Grand Junction RMP and will guide the management of public lands administered by the GJFO into the future. The GJFO Draft RMP/EIS and supporting information is available on BLM’s website.  

The plan contains four alternative approaches to future management of these public lands that will affect recreational shooting through closures.  They are as follows:

Alternative A:  Target shooting allowed on 1, 034,500 acres and closure of 26,900 acres.

Alternative B:  Target shooting allowed on 1, 021,400 acres and closure of 40,00 acres.

Alternative C:  Target shooting allowed on 1,007,800 acres and closure of 53,600 acres.

Alternative D:  Target shooting allowed on 1,044,300 acres and closure of 17,100 acres.

The NRA is reviewing this plan and encourages all shooters and hunters who recreate on the lands covered by this plan to carefully review the proposed closures arrayed in the charts in Chapter 2 pages 135 and 136 to determine how these closures may affect you.   In Appendix A – Figures, maps are provided showing what areas are closed to recreational shooting for each of the alternatives. 

The comment period has been extended to June 24th.  Comments on the plan may be submitted online at the web site given above.  For further information about the plan from the BLM, you may contact Collin Ewing, RMP Project Manager at 970-244-3027 or here.