Hunters Sour On Trump's Interior Secretary Over Public Lands Review

Hunters, fishermen and other sportsmen had high expectations when Ryan Zinke was tapped to be President Trump's interior secretary, in part because of his promise to bring a balanced, Teddy Roosevelt-style vision to managing public lands. But the former Republican congressman from Montana is now the target of a critical ad campaign by one of those groups, a symptom of eroding support among a deep-pocketed faction that has become increasingly influential. Zinke "definitely likes to espouse the ideals of Teddy Roosevelt," says John Sullivan, chairman of the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, who is featured in the ad. "He's not living up to them now." In particular, the sportsmen are upset by Zinke's handling of a controversial review of protected national monuments and the scope of restrictions on how they are used. The review covers 27 protected monuments that are larger than 100,000 acres. Sullivan says as a congressman, Zinke was a champion for hunter access, even if it meant bucking his own party. "He told us he'd do the same thing, before his promotion," Sullivan told NPR. "He's reversed that; we feel like he's not listening to us." The ad campaign is significant because sportsmen's groups like Sullivan's have become a political force on public lands lately. They have mobilized, sometimes literally in camouflage, to beat back high-profile bills in statehouses and in Congress that they see as restricting access to public lands. Their members tend to cut across the political spectrum and sometimes draw unlikely alliances with more traditional environmental groups...more