YAKIMA, WA – Yakima County plans to sue if the Trump administration doesn’t pull back plans to reintroduce grizzly bears in the area and delist them from the Endangered Species Act.
The Biden administration announced plans to reintroduce the bears to the North Cascades last year but didn’t set a timeline. Several states petitioned to remove ESA protections for grizzlies, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to create a special recovery zone for them instead.
USFWS recently closed a public comment period for a proposal to delist grizzly bears in all but four states. The plan would create a new, distinct population segment, or DPS, merging the six identified in a 1993 recovery plan into one across Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming.
“We’re wanting to give them substantive reasons to not only halt the grizzly bear reintroduction, but to end it completely,” County Commissioner Amanda McKinney told The Center Square.
Last month, the Board of County Commissioners paid a consultant $2,000 to send USFWS a 50-page letter in opposition. The board says USFWS failed to consider the economic impacts and argued that reintroduction in the North Cascades Ecosystem isn’t necessary for recovery.
According to a settlement in the case of Save the Yellowstone Grizzly v. USFWS, the agency must consider revising ESA protections or delisting grizzlies altogether. The county’s letter claimed that USFWS fell short on its end by failing to adequately present delisting as an option.
There is no timeline on when the government will reintroduce grizzlies to the Cascades, but the proposal takes another step despite opposition. McKinney said the plan puts agricultural workers and other folks at risk since bobcats, coyotes, and cougars already wander into town for food.
“It’s an extreme, imminent danger to the people who live in these urban interface areas,” McKinney said, “because these are going to be very malnourished, hungry, angry bears.”
USFWS will now sort through all the concerns the county and other jurisdictions raised before issuing a final rule justifying its decision. The agency could amend the proposal to change the boundary, adjust specific provisions, or reevaluate whether it should eliminate grizzly protections.
McKinney is more optimistic about delisting, or at least preventing the reintroduction of grizzlies in the North Cascades under the Trump administration. She said the process feels more collaborative after the Biden administration violated procedure, but the fight isn’t over yet.
If USFWS continues with plans to reintroduce grizzlies, McKinney said Yakima will file a lawsuit.
“The encounters would be immense, they would not have the habitat nor the food supply that they would traditionally need to sustain themselves,” she said. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”
