Interior Recommends Altering National Monuments Prized by Sportsmen

By Ammoland Editor Joe Evans

MISSOULA, Mont. -(Ammoland.com)- An Interior Department report recommending ambiguous “boundary changes” to national monuments prized by sportsmen and women drew swift criticism from Backcountry Hunters & Anglers today.

BHA warned that, if implemented, the recommendations by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke could negatively impact key fish and wildlife habitat, reduce outdoor opportunities important to sportsmen and critical to local economies, and undermine a bedrock conservation law, the Antiquities Act, that has enabled the long-term protection of millions of acres.

“Secretary Zinke is proposing to dismantle a conservation legacy pioneered by Theodore Roosevelt that has permanently conserved some of our nation’s most valuable public lands and waters,” said BHA President and CEO Land Tawney. “We’re pleased that the administration has acknowledged the overwhelming public support for our national monuments and the Antiquities Act, and we ask him today: ‘What would Theodore Roosevelt do?’”

Zinke is an admirer of the nation’s 26th president and has called himself a Roosevelt conservationist.

While details of the changes to national monuments being proposed by the administration remain unclear, the secretary indicated that he would not seek to have any monuments rescinded outright. Tawney dismissed this detail as …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand