He’s a rural Montanan whose way of life and livelihood depend on public lands.

Translation: he depends on socialism to survive (not that he’ll ever see it that way, of course).

Hunting season had yet to open when we spoke, but Zink was already hearing from fellow hunters who had to cut their own way into trails to hunting camps after Forest Service trail crews were laid off en masse.

Oh, no - work?!

Ranchers and farmers use public lands for agriculture; outfitters and guides take guests into them; hunters access them regularly to put food in the family freezer; and forestry, timber and sawmill workers fulfill contracts on them for wildfire mitigation and lumber.

Party of small government sure likes to suck the government teat.

I spoke to people across Montana, from different professions and down the political range from independent to staunchly conservative

Helluva range there, considering that (on a global scale) Democrats have right-wing views.

A ranch this size, 700 private acres, could still operate without a public land allotment by leasing other private land, but that’s much more expensive — prohibitively so, for most ranchers. Down in the Southwest, he said, many ranches are a whopping 90 percent federal land allotments; it’s often much less than that in western Montana.

Yeah, I don’t care enough to finish the article.

Edit typo.