US Dept of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is coming to Steamboat Springs next week and residents are organizing a big western Colorado “welcome” for him to show our love and support of our public lands.

The “Stand for Our Land” rally is to coincide with Secretary Zinke’s visit to address the Steamboat Institute’s Freedom Conference. The rally will take place on the Routt County Courthouse Lawn at 5:30pm on Friday, August 10. The event has been organized by a coalition of local Steamboat organizations concerned about the current Administration’s public land priorities, and they invite supporters from across western Colorado to attend.

Speakers representing agriculture, outdoor recreation, environmental awareness and climate change will address the rally, focusing on the role that responsible public lands management plays in their sector. The event will feature live music, community participation and voter registration. Participants are encouraged to bring signs highlighting what public lands mean to them. The first 200 participants will receive free “Stand for Our Land” t-shirts. 

​During Secretary Zinke’s tenure at the Department of Interior, which oversees the majority of public lands in the West, he has become a controversial partisan and inaccessible public figure. Zinke has disbanded citizen-led resource advisory councils that were an essential source of local input for the Bureau of Land Management on how to make decisions regarding land use, and established a pattern of favoring special interests, notably extractive industries.​

Residents, press and media are welcomed to join the “Stand for Our Land” rally, in person or via a live Facebook feed from the event. WCA staff and members will be traveling up to join the rally. Join us if you can and help spread the word!