Zinke All Ears to Anti-Public Lands Extremists, Refuses to Hold Public Meetings on So-Called “Listening Tour”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s taxpayer-funded tour of Utah’s national monuments this week was more of a scenic vacation than legitimate ‘listening tour.’ The photo-ops on horseback were dominated by anti-public lands extremists, closed-door meetings, and blunders. While Zinke claimed this was a ‘listening tour,’ he held no public meetings and only met with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Friends of Cedar Mesa for a total of an hour and a half after multiple requests for extended meetings were denied.

When you only listen to one-side of the issue, hold no public meetings, and ride a horse through some of Utah’s most pristine landscapes, it’s called a vacation not a ‘listening tour.

Here’s a recap of Zinke’s Utah vacation:

• Utah’s Senior Senator Orrin Hatch explained to reporters that Native Americans are ‘manipulated sometimes by people’ and ‘don’t fully understand’ what they lost when Bears Ears was declared a national monument. Tribal officials have demanded an apology from Senator Hatch.
• Zinke wages finger and snaps at a Bears Ears advocate who was simply asking him if he plans on meeting with the tribes involved in the designation after holding only one closed-door meeting that was described as ‘insufficient.’
• As crowds at Grand Staircase-Escalante chanted ‘talk to us.’ Zinke told KUTV News that ‘if I missed one group, that’s the breaks.’

Prior to the executive order signing, Zinke explained at a press briefing that, “and in the case of public land use, we feel that the public, the people that the monuments affect, should be considered…and give states and local communities a meaningful voice in the process.”

Apparently meaningful voices don’t include businesses thriving after national monument designations, who were also thwarted in their attempts to meet with the Secretary.

This is a stark contrast to the previous administration’s visit to Bears Ears, before making the designation, where Interior Secretary Sally Jewell posted public schedules, invited the press to attend tours, and held a three-hour public meeting. They also conducted extensive outreach before the designation, contrary to claims made by Utah’s congressional delegation.

The department will open a brief 15-day online comment period on Bears Ears National Monument and 60-day period on all other monuments under review starting May 12 at http://www.regulations.gov.

He may not have had the best vacation, but at least Secretary Zinke saw some of the country’s most cherished and pristine lands that deserve continued protection.