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Interior Dept. Pulls Glacier Park Chief From Zuckerberg's Tour

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- An official for President Donald Trump's Interior Department says the agency pulled Glacier National Park's superintendent from a recent park tour with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to save money, not to mute criticism over climate change.

Park superintendent Jeff Mow and U.S. Geological Survey ecologist Daniel Fagre had planned to accompany Zuckerberg last weekend, but Interior Department officials in Washington, D.C., decided to assign park rangers to the tour instead.

Agency spokeswoman Heather Swift said Thursday that the decision "was about using government resources and tax dollars responsibly."

Zuckerberg, who has previously criticized Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate decision, highlighted the effects of climate change on the park in a Facebook post.

Swift says the climate debate did not factor into the Interior Department's decision, and that "every tax dollar matters."

© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

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