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President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have quietly put a Texas wealth manager with no conservation experience in charge of all national parks and wildlife refuges. Kevin Lilly is the acting assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks at the Interior Department—a position that oversees both the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Lilly resigned his position as the chair of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission in order to join the Trump administration as a political appointee. SFGate reports that Lilly founded Avalon Advisors, the "largest privately owned wealth management firm in Texas," according to Southwestern University.
The top positions overseeing national parks are, by law, jobs that require Senate confirmation. But President Trump hasn't nominated a park service director or an assistant secretary for fish parks and wildlife, allowing Lilly to run the agencies in an acting capacity under the Vacancies Reform Act.
During the first Trump administration, the Interior department ran into legal trouble by allowing William Perry Pendley to illegally serve as the head of the Bureau of Land Management for longer than was allowed by law.
Lilly's authority may already be impacting wildlife and private property owners in Texas. This week, the Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a plan to expand a Texas wildlife refuge by purchasing land at market value from willing landowners using the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Now the Trump administration will block those landowners from selling their property to Fish and Wildlife.
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Bears Ears needs a path that does not swing back and forth with elections. This living, sacred cultural landscape deserves lasting protection. That means continued protections and the continued recognition of Tribal Nations as collaborative management partners. It means implementing the [resource management plan] and maintaining ongoing engagement with the Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission.”
