Zinke returns home to address governors

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke returned home to Whitefish last week to address the Western Governors’ Association conference and share his views on public lands and energy dominance in the country.

“It’s good to be home, and I think I’m probably the only person here who ever played trombone on this stage before,” he said Tuesday morning at the Performing Arts Center, drawing a laugh from the packed theater.

Zinke’s speech was part of the three-day conference hosted in Whitefish, which featured keynote speakers such as pollster Frank Luntz, mountaineer Conrad Anker and actor Jeff Bridges. Ten governors were in attendance.

Zinke focused primarily on how the Interior should best use public lands, advocating a mixed-use strategy that retains a focus on user recreation but also looks for ways to benefit from the country’s land holdings.

“There’s a consequence in not using some of our public land for the creation of wealth in jobs,” Zinke said. “You can use our public lands. Make sure that we do it right, make sure the reclamation plan is in place, make sure the communities living around those public lands can have a chance, and a shot at the American dream.”

“My position is if you’re going to do something on public land, the stakeholder is us, the American public. And I want to make sure that the American public gets good value from commercial enterprises on our public lands,” he added.

At Depot Park on the same day Zinke addressed the conference, about 100 protesters gathered to show their disapproval of Zinke’s agenda.

A proposal that has drawn controversy is the review of 26 national monuments across the U.S., including the Missouri River Breaks National Monument in north-central Montana. During a press conference following his address, Zinke said he will likely recommend the Missouri Breaks remain as is.

Inside the PAC, Zinke said a lot of the concerns over land use and how public land should best be utilized stems from a “breach of trust” between the public and the government managing the lands.

Zinke attributed some of the breach to today’s polarized political environment, but said he doesn’t want to continue to see citizens feeling a strong disconnect with government entities.

“It bothers me when the Bureau of Land Management is not viewed as land managers but is viewed as more law enforcement,” he said.

Zinke also echoed President Trump’s ideas on energy dominance rather than energy dependence — producing energy at home to create less reliance on importing energy from foreign countries.

“Environmentally, it is better to produce the energy here, under reasonable regulation, than watch it get produced overseas with no regulation,” he said.

The biggest gain of producing energy domestically is in the production of jobs, he said. Environmental regulations need to aid the production of energy, not hinder the industry’s ability to create well-paying jobs.

“Jobs matter, and there’s a social cost of not having a job. We love environmental regulations — fair and equitable — but it takes wealth to make sure that we can maintain those regulations and improve. It takes wealth to have jobs, and we need energy that is abundant, reliable and affordable,” he said.

Zinke said fossil fuels are an important part of the country’s energy mix going forward, but he and Trump are always looking for ways to better use energy resources and maximize efficiency.

“The president does not pick winners and losers. We don’t look as fossil fuels as any more important than other energy source,” he said. “We look at the value of research and development to make sure we’re using these better over time.”

The theme of energy dominance tied into Zinke’s priorities for national security.

The United States should never be “held hostage” by foreign countries due to energy needs, he said. Prior to working in government, Zinke served as a Navy SEAL commander.

“I never want your children, ever, to see what I’ve seen,” he said. “I’m probably the last person ever who would advocate going to war, especially if it’s for energy we have here.”

Looking ahead, Zinke said he envisions a period of reorganization between the organizations that manage public lands, like the National Parks Service, the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Although the parks system is thriving — Zinke reported 330 million parks visitors last year — it’s still necessary to think ahead and get started on shaping what public land management needs to be in the future.

“It’s time to look at what Interior should be a hundred years from now, just as [President Theodore] Roosevelt had the courage to look 100 years ago at what our public lands should be,” he said. “But when you have 330 million visitors going through our parks system, it’s time to look at the public lands around our parks systems and make sure the trails connect. The watersheds, to make sure they flow, make sure the wildlife corridors make sense, to make sure we increase public access in use, and live up to the promise that Roosevelt once gave us, for the benefit in use of the people, for the enjoyment of the people”

That reorganization period, he said, will primarily focus on “how to be more joint” in the collaboration of different agencies.

“We’re still going to keep the Park Service and the Forest Service, because there’s great value in keeping tradition,” Zinke said. “But we are going to look at ways to work better as a government on the basis of watersheds, and figure out how to be more joint.”

He’s optimistic moving forward, he said, and given the people working at the parks and the value of the public lands themselves, he said he can’t envision a problem that can’t be worked out.

“If we didn’t have good people, I’d be worried. And if we didn’t have great holdings, I’d also be worried. If our public lands weren’t about America, I’d be worried. But you have governors from the different sides of the aisle, and all the governors are friends and work together,” he said. “Our public lands in America is not a divided issue, it should be a uniting issue.”