Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is engaged in an assault on our National Park, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wilderness heritage.  Only you can stop him!!!

In 2017, President Trump nominated, and the U.S. Senate confirmed, Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.  Arguably, the U.S. Interior Department is the most important environmental agency in the U.S. Government with the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement found within its doors.
 
The Interior Department is the most important government agency for the protection of public lands and wilderness.  There are 72 million acres of wilderness in National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, and Tribal areas.  Wilderness is a place where humans are welcome as visitors, but “Nature” calls the shots.  It is the wildest and most protected form of federal public land that we have.

Unfortunately, Zinke’s policies degrade the National Wilderness System.  Zinke recently has implemented the following which negatively affects wilderness in the Interior Department:

1) In December 2017, Zinke approved a new legal opinion which fast-tracks two copper and nickel mining leases in northern Minnesota that are in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and would pollute this wilderness.

2) During the government shutdown, Zinke singed a secret agreement which allows the bulldozing of a road through the Izembeck Wilderness in the Izembeck National Wildlife Refuge.

3) Zinke, who is supposed to be the number one defender of wilderness, has said nothing as the U.S. Congress works to pass bills to amend, weaken, or undermine the Wilderness Act.

4) Zinke allowed the reversal of regulations that prevent shooting of denning wolves, killing hibernating bears and cubs, and catching and killing bear with traps in National Wildlife Refuges and wilderness areas.

5) Zinke supported doubling fees for families to visit many National Parks while he slashed by 25%, fees that ranchers pay to graze livestock in our wilderness areas.

If you enjoy wildernesses, whether you visit them or are just glad they are there, now is the time to speak up.  Write a letter to Secretary Zinke and tell him to stop the actions mentioned above.  Send your letter to:   

Mr. Ryan Zinke
Secretary of the Interior
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240

Thanks to Wilderness Watch (http://wildernesswatch.org) for information about this important issue.

Brandt Mannchen
February 17, 2018