Zinke orders DOI agencies to defer to states on wildlife, fisheries issues

Though the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 clearly directs the National Park Service to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has directed the agencies under his purview to defer wildlife and fisheries matters to states. In a memo (attached below) sent Monday, the secretary wrote that he "reaffirms" a 1983 policy that gives the states the authority "to exercise their broad trustee and police powers as stewards of the Nation's fish and wildlife species on public lands and waters under the jurisdiction of the Department." https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/09/updated-interior-secretary-orders-bureaus-defer-wildlifefisheries-issues-states