Capital Press Published December 19th by Dan Wheat
WENATCHEE, Wash.--- The National Park Service apparently is shutting down its efforts to reintroduce grizzly bears into the North Cascades Ecosystem. The Missoulian newspaper reported that North Cascades National Park Superintendent Karen Taylor-Goodrich said at a meeting that her staff had been asked to stop work on its environmental impact statement for grizzly bear recovery by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's office. Taylor-Goodrich reportedly said the order also stalls discussions with Canadian wildlife managers who oversee similar grizzly recovery in British Columbia.
The North Cascades Ecosystem encompasses 9,800 square miles in the U.S. and 3,800 square miles in British Columbia. The U.S. portion is generally the Cascades from Wenatchee northward. It includes North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Lake Chelan National recreation Area, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest.
The North Cascades National Park staff is in the third year of a public process and was evaluating 127,000 public comments on a draft EIS. That statement includes a no-action alternative and three alternatives to restore a reproducing population of about 200 bears by bring bears in from other areas. Grizzlies were listed as a endangered species in Washington State in 1980.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, whose 4th Congressional District encompasses part of the North Cascades, strongly opposed the plan. Jim DeTro, an Okanogan County Commissioner opposed the plan, said Taylor-Goodrich's announcement is good news. He said that he heard at a National Association of Counties meeting in Sunriver, Ore, in May that such a decision would be forthcoming.
Okanogan County ranchers already coping with coyotes, cougars and wolves said they didn't need another apex predator killing and harassing their cattle. "Yes, ranchers in the Okanogan will be happy but the opposition has bipartisan support. Even hikers and people on the green side said the North Cascades was no place for this", De Tro said.
A group in the small Western Washington town of Darrington opposed the plan saying it would hurt tourism, hiking and be bad for the general safety since there are fewer meadows, berries and no wild bees, elk nor bison for the bears. The draft plan would close more roads to hiking which would be bad for tourism, said members of the Darrington Area Resource Advocates group. The group includes area residents, representatives of the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, Hampton lumber mill, business owners and backcountry horsemen. "Many years of science, public education and significant taxpayer dollars have gone into grizzly bear recovery in our region and are not being taken seriously by this administration," said Chase Gunnell, Conservation Northwest spokesman.
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