On May 7, Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican congressman from Montana, and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat from New Mexico, stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building to announce a new voting bloc within the U.S. House of Representatives aimed at protecting public lands.
Called the Public Lands Caucus, the group includes 14 congressmen and women—seven Democrats and seven Republicans—and, according to the announcement, aims to “conserve natural resources while supporting recreation, local economies, and public access.”
The future health of America’s public lands is something that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should care about, Zinke stated.
“This is not a Republican or Democrat or a red or a blue issue,” He told Outside.“This is a red, white, and blue issue.”
The new caucus represents a bold step for Zinke, 63, as it may put him at odds with the policy push of his former boss, President Donald Trump. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, oversaw the Department of the Interior for two years during Trump’s first administration. The department oversees the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management, among other agencies.
During his stint, Zinke was often criticized by environmental groups for recommending a sizable reduction to Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. Outside profiled Zinke in 2017.
But Zinke said he disagrees with some of the Trump Administration’s latest policies on public lands. Since the start of 2025, the Trump Administration has made dramatic staff and budget cuts to these agencies, and rolled back environmental protections to public land. The administration’s proposed 2026 budget calls for the transfer of some National Park sites from federal to state management. And the administration has also floated plans to sell off public lands around Western cities or National Parks to help pay for the president’s domestic agenda.
“The idea that you’re going to sell public land to get out of debt is folly,” Zinke told Outside. “But I’m always open to looking at ways to better manage them.”
Zinke added, “I’m not in favor of selling or transferring public land.”
Instead, Zinke told Outside that his vision for public land management comes from the forefathers of the U.S. National Parks.
“About 120 years ago, the great ones—Roosevelt, Muir, Gifford Pinchot—they had a vision for the West, to preserve and protect, that gave us so much of the outdoor experiences that we now enjoy,” Zinke said. “The challenge today is how do we manage the next 100 years, given the new challenges we face?”
A Multi-Use Model
Zinke said he believes in a “multi-use model” for public land that balances conservation, recreation, and yes, even resource extraction and development.
For example, Zinke, while he was Secretary of the Department of the Interior, oversaw an expansion and upgrade to staff housing inside Yellowstone National Park. Zinke told Outside that the development was the “highest and best use” for the public land on which it was built.
“It relieves a lot of the pressure on local communities when park employees, particularly seasonal, can live on campus,” he said.
But Zinke added that the plan succeeded because it followed a well-defined political process that included a public comment period, sign-off by state and local officials, and even congressional notification.
“There’s a process because public lands belong to the American public,” he said.
Protection of public lands has become a hot-button topic in American politics, and over the years some communities and states have pushed back on U.S. Presidents for setting aside swaths of land as national monuments or wildlife refuges.
Zinke believes this frustration stems from leaders taking a hard line on environmental protection. Plans that forbid resource extraction or timber harvesting often leave the financial health of adjacent communities out of the decision.
“There’s a lot of anger out there of looking at our natural resources and mostly being blocked from a multiple-use model,” he said.
Zinke also believes public anger toward public land policies can be traced to the overlapping jurisdictional patchwork, which is something he wants the Public Land Caucus to streamline.
He asked Outside to envision a river surrounded by U.S. National Forest that flows into a dam.
“The trout are managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior through the Fish and Wildlife; the salmon are managed by the Department of Commerce through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association; the forest is managed by the Department of Agriculture through the U.S. Forest Service,” he said. “The dam, which controls the flow of water, the temperature, and the riparian banks, is either managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.”
Should the local population want to repair a dam across the river, they would need to go through four separate governmental departments.
“The result is nothing gets done and we drown in bureaucracy,” he said.
But the most pressing issue for U.S. public lands is still the policy changes being driven by the Trump Administration. Zinke said the National Parks face a brain drain after losing several thousand employees this year due to layoffs and buyouts.
The National Parks Conservation Association estimates that 2,400 to 2,500 NPS staff have accepted voluntary buyouts or early retirements since January. “The people that are retiring are your senior leaders that have a lot of experience,” said Zinke.
But Zinke also said he believes some of the largest U.S. National Parks are adequately staffed for 2025. “At Yellowstone, the numbers of seasonal and permanent [employees] are the highest ever,” Zinke said.
Zink also called the proposed 2026 plan for the NPS—to trim $1.2 billion from its $4.8 billion annual spend—a “skinny budget.”
“My concern as a former Navy SEAL and Secretary of the Interior is to make sure the front line is healthy,” he said. “That’s our National Parks and forests.”
What he’s not satisfied with is the idea of selling or transferring federal public lands, both of which have recently been proposed by the Trump Administration. Zinke points to Little Bighorn Battlefield, a National Monument.
“It just so happens to be in Montana,” Zinke said, “But it’s a national treasure.”
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