SecInterior Ryan Zinke is on the record and strongly opposed to the sale or transfer of public lands.
If anything, we have a far GREATER degree of support for sportsmen and public lands in DC than we have had for decades.
I remain unconvinced, and now is NOT the time to relax vigilance. Aside from TR, Republicans have historically and notoriously been poor on conservation issues. A case in point is the current H.R. 622 which is just another Republican's attempt to weaken Fed Land Mgmt. It's its own sort of Trojan Horse, chipping away at Public Lands.
And while Zinke opposes the transfer of federal public lands to the states, he supports transferring management of federal lands to the states in some circumstances. Zinke voted for a bill sponsored by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) that would transfer management of up to four million of acres of federal public lands to states and counties. Under such a scenario, federal environmental laws that protect wildlife, clean water and clean air would not apply to these lands.
I think it remains unclear what sort of Interior Secretary Zinke will be. Will he be a James Watt's? I'm hopeful he won't, but I'm not going to relax on this.
I wrote Zinke this morning on HR622...
