Newhouse slams federal plan to reintroduce grizzlies to Washington State

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) on April 25 denounced a federal plan to reestablish grizzly bears in the North Cascades Ecosystem, an area that includes most of his home state of Washington.

“The National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision regarding the North Cascades grizzly restoration plan is outrageous, yet consistent based on the recent actions of this administration,” Rep. Newhouse said last week. 

Specifically, the congressman opposes a decision by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to move three to seven grizzly bears per year to the North Cascades Ecosystem over a five-to-10-year period in an effort to establish a population of at least 25 total bears.

The North Cascades Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was first proposed by the Obama administration and plans have been ongoing.

For instance, the NPS and USFWS in September 2023 announced they would seek public comment on a proposed rule under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act related to the potential introduction of grizzly bears in the North Cascades.

Rep. Newhouse on Oct. 6, 2023, demanded that NPS and USFWS extend the public comment period to accommodate locals who wanted to respond to the proposal. And on Oct. 13, 2023, he attended the public comment session in Okanogan, Wash., and spoke against the plan.

Most recently, Rep. Newhouse on March 22 released a statement condemning the final EIS with proposed action on the question of introducing grizzly bears to the North Cascades ecosystem, according to his staff.

“Throughout this entire process, I have been hearing from local residents, participating in public comment sessions, and meeting with the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent this misguided decision from moving forward,” said Rep. Newhouse, noting that it “reinforces what we feared: no amount of local opposition was going to prevent these federal bureaucrats from doing what they wanted all along.”

Rep. Newhouse said he had hoped that both NPS and USFWS would listen to the will of concerned residents in the affected areas, but said the Biden administration instead has again disregarded local public opinion.

“Instead [it is] catering to the whims of coastal elites and the out-of-touch environmentalist lobby, which has been rushing to finalize this plan since its inception,” he said.