The Biden administration’s plan to transplant grizzly bears to Washington’s North Cascades may have been sidelined by the Trump administration, according to a report at SFGate, a San Francisco-based news agency.
“After several agencies experienced high employee turnover under Trump administration-appointed leadership, the grizzly bear reintroduction program was thrown into limbo,” the report explained.
Reintroduction of grizzlies in the Evergreen State has been a goal for environmentalists for several years. The project gained momentum during the Obama administration, stalled during the first Trump term (2017-2021), regained energy under Joe Biden—which many conservatives considered to be a third Obama term—and now with Donald Trump back in the White House, bringing bears back to an area they officially haven’t been seen in for decades does not appear to be a priority.
While the report claims opposition to reintroduction “isn’t widespread” and is based on “people having the wrong information,” that may not be the case at all. Opposition to reintroduction goes well beyond the North Cascades region, encompassed by Okanogan County and the Methow Valley. Evergreen state big game hunters and cattle ranchers are almost universally opposed, and there has been opposition from such groups as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The concerns include predation on mule deer and cattle—Okanogan County has one of the healthiest mule deer populations in Washington state—and the inevitable interactions between bears and humans.
When the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Park Service announced one year ago their plan to restore a grizzly population to the North Cascades, opponents quickly noted that support for the plan strengthened the farther away from the region proponents lived.
Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) is a longtime opponent of reintroduction, and SFGate quoted him from a year ago calling the proposal “outrageous,” but consistent with other actions of the Biden administration.
But Biden is out, and so also, it appears—at least for the time being—is the reintroduction plan.
While there have been no “confirmed” sightings of grizzlies in the North Cascades inside Washington state, there are anecdotal reports of grizzlies traveling south from British Columbia not only in the North Cascades, but also in the Selkirk mountains in far northeast Washington.
