The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Tucson Field Office (FO) has responsibility for administering about 800,000 acres of public lands in southern Arizona within an area bounded to the south by the international border with Mexico, to the west by the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation, to the east by the Galiuro Mountains and Sulpher Springs Valley and to the north by the Tonto National Forest and San Carlos Indian Reservation. Tucson FO manages seven areas within the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS). These include Ironwood Forest National Monument (NM), San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (RNCA), Las Cienegas NCA, and the Baboquivari Peak, Coyote Mountains, Needle's Eye and White Canyon wilderness areas. The remainder of the public lands managed by the Tucson FO is a mix of small, scattered parcels and larger blocks of public land.
Tucson Planning Area
The Tucson planning area covers about 408,500 acres of public lands scattered across southern Arizona in Cochise, Gila, Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz Counties (see map of Tucson planning area). The public lands within Las Cienegas NCA, Ironwood Forest NM and San Pedro RNCA are not included in the Tucson planning area as they are or will be covered by separate stand-alone land use plans.
The Tucson planning area includes a wide variety of significant resources and public uses. Habitat for twenty proposed and listed threatened and endangered species and numerous special status species are found across the planning area. Significant prehistoric and historic cultural sites are also present representing more than 3,000 years of human occupation in the southwest. The Baboquivari Peak, Coyote Mountains, White Canyon and Needle's Eye wilderness areas and the Middle Gila River wild and scenic river study area are present in the planning area. Recreational opportunities abound, including hiking, horse-back riding, mountain biking, off-highway vehicle touring, primitive camping, hunting, river rafting, sight-seeing, wildlife viewing and bird watching. The public lands also support ranching, mining, utilities and communication sites, commercial recreation, and Recreation and Public Purposes (R&PP) leases providing schools, fire stations, parks, and other public purpose facilities.
Lands adjacent to the Tucson planning area include: BLM-Phoenix Field Office, BLM-Safford Field Office, Saguaro National Park, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Coronado and Tonto National Forests, Tohono O'odham Indian Nation, San Carlos Indian Reservation, San Xavier Indian Reservation, Arizona State Trust Lands, Arizona State Parks, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Pima and Pinal County Parks, and a wide variety of private lands including ranches, mines, and subdivisions.