Hunting and fishing groups praised Ryan Zinke’s nomination as head of the Interior Department, but now some are starting to worry that the Montanan cares more about oil and gas interests than public lands.
“The level of frustration is growing daily” among outdoor groups, Whit Fosburgh, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, told The Huffington Post. Fosburgh and others were disappointed when Zinke supported the Trump budget, which calls for cutting up to 40,000 DOI jobs and slashing the overall DOI budget $1.6 billion, to $11.7 billion. “To date, it’s been overwhelmingly development, development, development — without even lip service to conservation,” Fosburgh said of Zinke. “That is troubling.”
Zinke has many times compared himself to Teddy Roosevelt , who was an avid outdoorsman and conservationist. Zinke also overturned a moratorium on new coal leases on public land set under the Obama administration, and is currently trying to alter a bill that limits the amount of methane gas — a powerful contributor to climate change — on federal land.
Some organizations, including Duck’s Unlimited, continue to hope that Zinke will be the Roosevelt leader they were promised. “Thanks to Sec. Zinke’s leadership, Ducks Unlimited and sportsmen and women from around the country are being welcomed as partners at the Department of Interior,” said Margaret Everson, the group’s chief policy editor.