The Interior Department wants to open up a quarter-million acres at national wildlife refuges for hunting and fishing.

The move would impact 21 states. In our region, it would expand hunting at a refuge in Utah  and another in Montana. It would also open Montana’s Swan River refuge to big game hunting for the first time.

John Gale is conservation director with the organization Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. It might sound counterintuitive to allow people to kill animals in places that are supposed to be a refuge for them, he says, “But hunting is a part of the North American model of conservation and hunting…