Terry Zink has spent 57 years building a life in Montana’s backcountry. The 57-year-old third-generation houndsman from Marion—a remote town nestled deep within the Flathead National Forest—runs a small archery target business serving outdoor recreation workers and guides who, until recently, had steady employment managing America’s public lands.ContentsDOGE’s Destruction: 16,000 Jobs Eliminated in Public Land […]

Terry Zink has spent 57 years building a life in Montana’s backcountry. The 57-year-old third-generation houndsman from Marion—a remote town nestled deep within the Flathead National Forest—runs a small archery target business serving outdoor recreation workers and guides who, until recently, had steady employment managing America’s public lands. Contents

Those workers are disappearing. Their jobs are gone. And Zink, who voted for Trump in 2024, is watching his customer base—and his livelihood—vanish before his eyes.

“You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,” Zink told Politico reporters as he surveyed the damage. “You cannot fire our firefighters. You cannot fire our trail crews. You have to have selective logging, water restoration, and healthy forests” (1).

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
    22·
    2 months ago

    I moved to Wyoming about a decade ago. Never in my life have I met more hardcore and practical environmentalists in my life. These people spend a lot of money, time, and effort making sure that their rivers, forests, and wildlife are and remain healthy. It is a monumental task.

    I will never understand how their mental gymnastics work in order to reconcile their vote for a man who made his money in New York real estate and reality TV.

    • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      9·
      2 months ago

      for a man who made his money in New York real estate and reality TV.

      No one except law enforcement would know Trump’s name if he hadn’t been born rich. At best he’d be working at a used car lot wearing a cheap toupee and polyester suit.

      • foodandart@lemmy.zipEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        No one except law enforcement would know Trump’s name outside of New York if Mark Burnett hadn’t put him on TV.

        I blame that prick.

        There was a real reason that Trump picked his skirts up and left for California to get on TV after he lost the Resorts Internation Hotel and Casino to Merv Griffin in the late 80’s. The Trump Taj left a ton of people holding the bag and he had to leave. Got himself TV famous so as to make sure no one - least of all the gangsters of the Philly mob he stiffed - could touch him.

        (he owed Nicky Scarfo a lot of money…)

      • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        He made a lot of headlines over the years we gaudy gold embellishments, plastering his name everywhere, and a long history of reneging on contracts by making the lawsuits more expensive to run than the money he owed people. He’s always been a con artist with no legitimate business talent , and I don’t see how anyone missed that.

        But yeah he never could have done that if he hadn’t started rich