This banner is worth a thousand words

Secretary Zinke needs to get with the program

I love this banner, which hung above the H Street Festival in Washington, DC, this past weekend and will be used again (and again). Here’s its story:

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) expired on Sept. 30. America’s most successful conservation and recreation program, LWCF funds everything from national parks and wildlife refuges to Little League fields.

Despite bipartisan support, Congress did not renew the program before it expired and is now working to reauthorize it, which they will do (knock on wood).

It would be hugely beneficial if Congress had an ally in the Trump administration, which is not far fetched. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was a backer of LWCF when he was a Montana Congressman, saying in 2015, “I know what is at stake if we lose this critical resource. It’s time Congress gets on board.”

But as head of the Dept. of Interior, it’s the Secretary who needs to get on board. He publicly backed the President’s proposed budgets, which sought to all but eliminate funding for the program. If fully funded, LWCF would receive $900 million per year (the funds come from offshore oil royalties). The president’s most recent budget proposed $8 million.

Earlier this year, Outside Magazine did a story called Ryan Zinke is sabotaging our best public lands program. “Sabotaging” is a strong word. But trying to eliminate funding for America’s most successful conservation and recreation program is an intolerable proposal.

We need Secretary Zinke to get with the program, which is in part why I love this banner. The other part? Hanging a banner with a timely message above the heads of tens of thousands of people is, well, fun.