Some Steamboat Springs, Colorado residents are welcoming the Interior Department Secretary with a protest Friday evening. Ryan Zinke is the keynote speaker at the Steamboat Institute’s annual ‘Freedom Conference,’ a private event.
Cody Perry has lived in Steamboat Springs for 18 years. He’s behind the ‘Stand for Our Land’ rally to protest Zinke’s leadership over public lands.
“We're just really wanting to send the secretary a message,” Perry said. “With his pattern of consistently ignoring public input. That's why we're gathering.”
Perry said he and many others in the West are concerned about Zinke’s decisions and management style.
“For the secretary to attack Bears Ears and Grand Staircase and otherwise dismantle some of our nation's most prized national monuments, that's seriously unacceptable to us,” Perry said.
In an emailed statement, the Interior Department responded:
“Secretary Zinke is excited to be back in Colorado and talk about issues that most Americans all agree on: the need to rebuild our national parks infrastructure, the need to modernize the federal government, the need for American energy, public access, and the balanced multiple-use of federal lands.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
