Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Ryan Keith ZinkeTrump extends Florida offshore drilling pause, expands it to Georgia, South Carolina Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention Trump flails as audience dwindles and ratings plummet MORE is blaming "environmental terrorist" groups for the deadly forest fires ripping through California.

Zinke, who visited neighborhoods ravaged by the state's largest wildfire ever over the weekend and on Monday, said environmentalists and green regulations in California made the fires much worse.

"We have been held hostage by these environmental terrorist groups that have not allowed public access — that have refused to allow [the] harvest of timber,” Zinke told Brietbart radio over the weekend.

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During his visit to the Golden State, Zinke pushed a narrative that increasing logging industry access to national forests could limit fire intensity.

"But we have these radical environmentalists that close off roads, refuse to have firebreaks, refuse to have any timber harvested, no grazing, and the result is these catastrophic fires,” Zinke said.

Zinke's message echoes President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE, who last weekend tweeted that California's environment laws were to blame for the state's fire disaster.

"California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!," Trump tweeted August 6.

In an op-ed for USA Today last week, Zinke similarly blamed "radical environmentalists" for the fires. "[W]e are attacked with frivolous litigation from radical environmentalists who would rather see forests and communities burn than see a logger in the woods,” he wrote.

Environmentalists and California politicians have pushed back on the characterization, arguing that logging is not enough to preventing fires, and that the real issue is climate change, which they say the administration is avoiding.

Zinke visited neighborhoods surrounding California's Carr fire with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue George (Sonny) Ervin PerduePerdue has found the right path in National Forests Democrats seek clarity on payroll tax deferral for federal workers USDA extending free meals for kids through end of the year if funding allows after criticism MORE. A number of provisions in the House's version of the farm bill would open up logging opportunities on public land.