Interior Secretary
Posted: December 16th, 2016, 4:35 pm
Please see the following Politico article about the likely next Interior Secretary.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/t ... ent-232716
It appears having a back country hunter in the family may have averted one of the worst possibilities of the Trump Presidency. If the Interior Secretary is not interested, it seems less likely that the Feds will start selling off public lands to rich people and oil & gas companies. The possibility of a public lands giveaway was giving me the most worries about this next administration (aside from WW III, of course). More likely, we'll see increased drilling. Well, that's still better than giving those lands away to the highest bidder, forever.
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As an aside, I've been up on a high horse for years about mountain bike access. Often, I've argued that the negatives of environmental impact from increased recreational mountain bike use (as is true with impact from hikers, equestrians, hunters, anglers, and every other class of use) is far outweighed by the benefits of a larger constituency of people who recreate on public lands. In this case, backcountry hunters, who would stand to lose access to prime hunting grounds for many species, have advocated forcefully and apparently successfully for a person whose policy preferences would preserve public lands for the public. While the threat of losing public lands remains real, that threat may be less imminent. We can hope.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/t ... ent-232716
It appears having a back country hunter in the family may have averted one of the worst possibilities of the Trump Presidency. If the Interior Secretary is not interested, it seems less likely that the Feds will start selling off public lands to rich people and oil & gas companies. The possibility of a public lands giveaway was giving me the most worries about this next administration (aside from WW III, of course). More likely, we'll see increased drilling. Well, that's still better than giving those lands away to the highest bidder, forever.
___________________
As an aside, I've been up on a high horse for years about mountain bike access. Often, I've argued that the negatives of environmental impact from increased recreational mountain bike use (as is true with impact from hikers, equestrians, hunters, anglers, and every other class of use) is far outweighed by the benefits of a larger constituency of people who recreate on public lands. In this case, backcountry hunters, who would stand to lose access to prime hunting grounds for many species, have advocated forcefully and apparently successfully for a person whose policy preferences would preserve public lands for the public. While the threat of losing public lands remains real, that threat may be less imminent. We can hope.