Oregon Hikers

Any sportsman worth his salt can walk in. The rest of them should get in shape before they claim that title.

Today, a newspaper in Virginia published an opinion piece by Rupert Cutler, who has "held numerous positions within the environmental world, including being appointed as assistant secretary of agriculture for conservation, research, and education under President Jimmy Carter. He has worked for the U.S. Forest Service and the Soil Conservation Service" and has "taught environmental planning courses at Michigan State University, ..., headed Defenders of Wildlife, ..."

[Zinke] opposes transfer of federal public lands to the states.
....
However, [Zinke's] record includes a vote to transfer management of four million acres of federal lands to states [HR 621]. He supports oil and gas drilling near Glacier National Park and copper mining in the headwaters of Montana’s Smith River. He opposed the Obama administration’s efforts to restore protections for headwaters streams and wetlands, and he opposes the Clean Power Act which aims to curb emissions that cause climate change.

Zinke will draft budgets of the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Office of Surface Mining.

Full piece:
http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commenta ... 07a66.html

Rupert Cutler brief bio:
http://www.blueridgelandconservancy.org/rupert.html

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Montanan Dave Tyler wrote MCV's statement on Zinke. Tyler, along "with his wife, Becky Weed, own and operates Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool Company, a certified organic sheep ranch and wool processing mill, with a predator-friendly ethic."

With the nomination of Congressman Ryan Zinke to be the nation’s Secretary of Interior, President-elect Trump has elevated a person whose record just simply doesn’t match with the profound need to protect our nation’s clean air, water, and public lands. When it comes to energy development, Zinke’s record is one that has too often put the interests of mining companies and corporate interests ahead of Montana’s values, supporting policies that jeopardize our world class wildlife and clean water resources. He has not acknowledged the imperative to act on the danger to our land and water caused by climate change, threatening our farmers, ranchers, hunters, anglers, and the most vulnerable Americans.

full piece:
http://mtvoters.org/newsroom/trump-name ... rior-post/

Dave Tyler brief bio:
http://mtvoters.org/about-us/local-chap ... k-chapter/

MCV (Montana Conservation Voters)
http://mtvoters.org/

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In an onEarth column for NRDC, Jeff Turrentine groups Zinke with Pruitt, Tillerson and Perry as The Four Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse:
https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/four-horse ... mpocalypse

Turrentine also wrote an onEarth column on Zinke's wavering keep-public-lands-public stance:
https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/ryan-zinke ... nds-really

NRDC itself issued its stance against Zinke, penned by their legislative director, Scott Slesinger:
https://www.nrdc.org/media/2017/170131

more on Zinke by NRDC:
https://www.nrdc.org/search?search=zinke

The Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, "was founded in 1970 by a group of law students and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement."
https://www.nrdc.org/about#mission
Turrentine's brief auto-bio
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffturrentine

Slesinger, as profiled by Bloomberg Government:
https://about.bgov.com/blog/the-environ ... publicans/

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Dominique Mosbergen, Huffington Post reporter "covering climate change, extreme weather and extinction", wrote in-depth on Zinke's efforts against protections of endangered wildlife. Mosbergen quoted warnings from:

Leda Huta, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity,
Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition
Jeff Turrentine, Natural Resources Defense Council
Norman Christensen, dean and professor emeritus at Nicholas School of the Environment

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rya ... 284f254fbf

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Zinke's financial backers:

Analysis of FEC data
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians ... cycle=2016

FEC data (use candidate search feature to obtain all):
example:
http://www.fec.gov/fecviewer/CandidateC ... tabIndex=1
http://www.fec.gov/fecviewer/CommitteeD ... ionYr=2016

Yesterday, Feb 6th, 170 conservation groups co-signed a letter urging senators to reject Zinke for Interior Secretary. The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth lead the way:

Press Release:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news ... 6-2017.php

Letter to the Senate:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/prog ... letter.pdf

That's a lot of information. The sense I get is that after tooth-and-nail fights over so many nominees, Zinke's is going to sail through when they get to it. To top it off, a special election will have to be held to fill his House seat. Although Montana votes reliably Republican for President, they have a Democratic Governor and Senator, so Dems won't mind getting a shot at his seat.

Just posting this here rather than starting a new thread, but to no one's surprise Zinke is recommend reducing the size of several National Monuments, including the Cascade-Siskiyou NM.

Washington Post report here

Just posting this here rather than starting a new thread, but to no one's surprise Zinke is recommend reducing the size of several National Monuments, including the Cascade-Siskiyou NM.

Thank you. I wrote to Merkley, Wyden, and Blumenauer to keep their voices loud opposing this, despite the confusion surrounding where the decision-making on this will actually come from.

Everyone on this site, posters and lurkers alike, should do the same with their respective representatives.

I don't really understand what National Monument status does. As far as I can tell all this land had to already be federal public property before it could become a NM, and not at risk for being sold off even without NM status unless worse things come to pass. (i.e. general public land sell-offs.) Is the primary concern over the loss of NM status that it is a stepping stone to sell-off, or would the loss of NM status itself be a big deal?

Webfoot wrote:I don't really understand what National Monument status does. As far as I can tell all this land had to already be federal public property before it could become a NM, and not at risk for being sold off even without NM status unless worse things come to pass. (i.e. general public land sell-offs.) Is the primary concern over the loss of NM status that it is a stepping stone to sell-off, or would the loss of NM status itself be a big deal?

Mining or Oil Drilling, in the case of Bear Ears.