MISSOULA — U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke was in Missoula Friday morning, to receive recognition from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
At RMEF’s headquarters, president and CEO Kyle Weaver and chief conservation officer Blake Henning presented Zinke with the Excellence in Advocacy Award. They said Zinke shared the organization’s priorities – like supporting hunting, public lands and wildlife management – both during his time in Congress and when he served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior during the first Trump administration.
“It was a great, great honor,” Zinke said. “I think Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a great organization.”
(Watch the video to see more from the award presentation.)
Henning told MTN that RMEF was grateful for actions like a 2018 order Zinke signed as secretary, which directed federal agencies to emphasize projects that improve winter habitat and migration corridors for deer, elk and antelope.
“That led to a lot of emphasis on that kind of work by the federal government,” Henning said. “State wildlife agencies have picked that up, and nonprofit conservation organizations like ourselves have grabbed on to that – and that's been a priority for us for many years.”
RMEF leaders say they’ve also worked with Zinke on their current top goal: proposed legislation called the “Fix Our Forests Act.” Zinke is a cosponsor of the bill, which seeks to update federal rules and policies – including speeding up environmental reviews – to make it faster and easier to do thinning, prescribed burning and other active forest management projects.
“We need to do a better job managing our forests, our systems,” said Zinke. “It's inexcusable to watch our forests burn down every year. That destroys habitat, threatens watershed.”
The Fix Our Forests Act passed the House last year, with support from all Republicans and some Democrats, but it has not yet gotten through the Senate.
Zinke is the third elected official to receive RMEF’s Excellence in Advocacy Award. Montana U.S. Sen. Steve Daines was the first in 2021, followed by Kentucky state Sen. Robin Webb in 2024.
