The Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest wildlife conservation group in the U.S., today praised the bipartisan confirmation of U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) as the new Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

"This is good news for all Americans who cherish what our founder Theodore Roosevelt called the true health and wealth of our country - our natural resources," said Ben B. Hollingsworth Jr., president of the Boone and Crockett Club. "Secretary Zinke and President Trump both know that ever since Roosevelt made federal lands and conservation national priorities, hunters, anglers and other sportsmen-conservationists have carried out the work on the ground that ensures wildlife and the habitats that support them receive the attention a national treasure deserves."

Secretary Zinke has already said he would uphold Theodore Roosevelt's belief that public lands are "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." He continued by assuring the public that he will "work tirelessly to ensure our public lands are managed and preserved in a way that benefits everyone for generations to come."

Hollingsworth Jr. said, "The Club believes, as Roosevelt did, that conservation means development as much as it does protection. This is exactly what Secretary Zinke means by managed and preserved. Our natural resources have been feeling the weight of an entanglement of policies that have been blocking conservation opportunities. Our Secretary already has experience in seeing the cost of inaction. We're confident that with his leadership we'll get back to the business of the true definition of conservation - the wise and prudent use of natural resources without waste."