The state Bureau of Land Management says recreational shooting is now banned at a small portion of the Sonoran Desert National Monument.
The court-ordered ban in about 10,600 acres of a popular area began on Tuesday and will last at least two years. The monument is nearly 500,000 acres in size and is southwest of Phoenix.
The BLM says a federal judge ordered that portion of the monument to be free of target shooting after finding that the agency failed to consider cumulative effects of shooting, such as trash and shell casings left behind at the monument. The judge issued the order in March.
The BLM says it will study the effects of target shooting and work with the public to come up with a new plan for the monument.
