Zinke undaunted after busy, divisive 2017

By Michael Coleman 

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s first year in office was a whirlwind of activity and controversy, with plenty of both centered in New Mexico. “I love my job,” the interior secretary declared last week during an interview in his office, which boasts jaw-dropping views of the Washington Monument and National Mall. “I’m passionate about public lands.” No issue loomed larger in the interior secretary’s first year in office than his contentious and controversial review of 27 national monuments for possible downsizing or other changes. Two of those monuments – Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces and Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos – became a national rallying cry for land conservationists. Zinke spent two days in New Mexico in late July meeting with public officials and others, and even took a horseback ride with the state’s two Democratic U.S. senators. Despite intense public skepticism about his intentions, Zinke recommended no changes to the monuments’ boundaries in New Mexico – only management changes. It was a marked contrast to his action in Utah, where he urged Trump to slash the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments. The move triggered lawsuits and a withering rebuke from the Patagonia outdoor clothing company, which took to social media to tell Americans that Trump “stole your land.” “The president tasked me to get the local voice,” Zinke said, explaining his decision on New Mexico’s monuments. “I talked to the governor, I talked to your two senators, I talked to (Republican Rep.) Steve Pearce and I talked to the communities. Overwhelmingly, the communities were comfortable with the monuments. It was different in Utah where you had both senators, all the congressman and the governor supportive (of reducing the monuments).” And what about Pearce, who represents the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monuments? He had pushed Zinke and Trump to reduce the half-million-acre land preserve’s footprint by as much as 88 percent. “My respect for Steve Pearce is enormous, but at the end of the day it was my judgment that the (scientifically or culturally significant) objects could be protected, and that the ranchers, infrastructure and public access could be insured by a change in the monument’s proclamation without a boundary revision,” Zinke said. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico remain suspicious of Zinke’s intent in New Mexico, and have said they won’t be mollified until Trump makes final decisions on the two monuments....more