Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s background of moderate political conservatism — and conservative environmentalism — may prove key in understanding his actions during a review of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
At issue is what the avid hunter and fisherman will advise President Donald Trump to do with Katahdin Woods, one of 27 federally designated sites under scrutiny.
Proponents of the Maine monument say that the designation has started to revitalize the moribund Katahdin region economy, while opponents, including Gov. Paul LePage, have called it an unwelcome intrusion of federal authority into Maine.
Various press accounts painted Zinke as opposing the transfer of federal lands to state hands in Montana. When federal land transfer was added to the GOP platform in 2016, he resigned as a delegate to the Montana party’s national convention.
Yet Zinke has also opposed environmentalists on issues including coal extraction and oil and gas drilling, declaring recently that the war on coal is over. The Los Angeles Times described his stance on climate change as “muddled,” and he’s argued at various points that it is a threat that needs to be addressed with new energy policies, but also, that he wasn’t an expert on it.
Zinke got to the secretary’s chair with a route that took him high and low through the political landscape. He served as a U.S. Navy SEAL for 22 years, winning 11 commendations, including two Bronze Stars, for combat service that included two tours in Iraq. He also earned scorn for referring to Hillary Clinton as the “Antichrist” during his 2014 election to Congress.
A former Montana congressman who grew up in a logging and rail town near Glacier National Park, the 55-year-old Zinke is a plumber’s son who sailed through his congressional confirmation with a 68-31 vote that included 16 Democrats. According to thehill.com, Zinke won over Democrats by coming out “ strongly in favor of conservation priorities that Democrats hold dear.”
Zinke’s might be a pro forma visit. In his announcement Monday and its accompanying five-page interim report, he spoke repeatedly of the need for local unanimity in shrinking the boundaries of the far more controversial Bears Ears monument instead of rescinding that designation, and Indian tribes there threatened to sue to prevent the redrawing.
Among Maine leaders, meanwhile, only LePage and U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin have publicly sought to significantly alter Katahdin Woods, and Maine Attorney General Janet Mills threatened to sue the Trump administration if Katahdin Woods’ boundaries are shrunk. Many Katahdin region leaders who once opposed it now desire to live with the monument — without changing it.