Passing down our Montana birthright

There’s a lot to love about growing up in Montana, but one of my fondest childhood memories was with my dad and brother on opening weekend of rifle season.

We’d be out of the house before the sun came up, every pair of socks we owned were on our feet, and our pockets were stuffed with boloney sandwiches. I would study each trail and track like the Bulldogs playbook, and I was positive every scrape on a tree meant a monster bull elk was lurking just out of sight. 

When I retired from the Navy and Lola and I moved the kids back to the Flathead that was one of the first things I did with the boys. I passed down their Montana birthright.

Opening weekend is a tradition passed on from generation to generation that can only continue if we maintain public access to public lands and if we are good stewards of the land and wildlife. America’s hunters are our best tool for conservation, and policy needs to reflect that. I’m proud that the majority of the bills I’ve introduced in Congress and orders I signed as Interior secretary promote stewardship and sportsmanship.

As secretary of the Interior, I expanded hunting and fishing opportunities on over 1 million acres, including Montana’s Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and Swan River National Wildlife Refuge. I conducted a nationwide review of the Interior’s national monuments, and after reviewing input, I found opportunities to expand hunting and fishing on millions more acres of public lands. I also created the first federal program for migration corridors, partnering with western states to improve big-game winter range and expand hunting and fishing opportunities on another two million acres. In fact the program was so successful the Biden administration tried to rebrand it as their own.

Upon returning to Congress last year, I introduced two bipartisan bills to promote public-private partnerships to protect and expand migration corridors of big game, including deer, elk, pronghorn, wild sheep and moose which built on the program I created as secretary. I also introduced the bipartisan Public Lands in Public Hand Act prohibiting the sale or transfer of most Forest Service and Interior lands as part of its land disposal process, with exceptions for things like land swaps to increase access to “land-locked” parcels of prime recreation lands. This would ensure nearly 30 million acres of Montana’s public lands remain accessible for hunting.

It’s also critical that our Second Amendment rights and access to ammunition remain intact. I successfully attached a policy rider in the 2023 and 2024 funding bills to prohibit the Biden administration from banning lead ammunition or tackle on federal lands. And I have stood against the administration’s attempts to implement so-called “red flag laws” which allow the government to seize your hunting rifles.

In contrast, my opponent Monica Tranel’s record should be a warning sign to Montana sportsmen and women. In addition to supporting a national red flag law, she is a radical environmental lawyer who will hand our public lands to her environmentalist clients and fundraisers. 

Tranel supports transitioning the nation’s energy production to 100% renewables and supports using federal lands to get there — particularly turning 900 square miles of prime hunting lands into a utility scale solar farm. Montana’s leading conservation groups like Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers have come out against these proposals because when solar cells come in, public access is locked out.

This isn’t the only way the radical left looks to lock out hunters and shooters. Just last month, the Biden administration revoked access for hunters and shooting on over a million acres of public lands, and Tranel has been silent. If she is elected to Congress, she will kneel to the anti-hunting and anti-gun lobby the same way she kneels to her solar clients.

Public access to public lands is our heritage and birthright. Since returning to Congress, I’ve carried the baton and built on that critical conservation work. If Montanans choose to send me back as their representative, they can trust me to do the same. If you believe our heritage is worth fighting for, I’d sure appreciate your vote. Happy hunting, Montana.

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, is seeking re-election to the U.S. House. He served as President Trump’s secretary of the Interior from 2017-2019. He lives in Whitefish.