SEATTLE – The federal government would be barred from spending money to move grizzly bears into Washington’s North Cascades in the coming fiscal year, under an amendment approved Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has backed the effort to bring the bears back to the mountain range, saying in March they are “part of a healthy environment.” That gave new life to an Obama-era recovery study halted by the Trump administration.
But the recovery effort in the North Cascades is opposed by Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Sunnyside, who inserted in a House appropriations bill the amendment banning federal money for reintroduction efforts.
In an April letter to Zinke, Newhouse wrote that the reintroduction plan “threatens the way of life” for his north central Washington constituents. Ranchers are concerned that grizzlies could kill livestock, and…
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Exposing the Big Game 
Not surprising. I don’t know, I never trusted Zinke’s talking about bringing grizzlies back to the Cascades. I knew it would never fly with ranchers, and to me, I thought it was a way to justify and offset hunting them in the GYE so he could say that they were trying to bring them back to Washington!
But of course, we know who Congress answers to, and he can say ‘oh well, I tried.’
are taxpayers paying the huyge costs to “return” them so that huntes can then shoot them to death. whoi is in favor of that move? where is the protection foir this species? are taxpoayers being “played” to pay so that hunters can have a joilly good time killing. i dont think that makes sense to me at all
They wouldn’t have moved enough to justify killing them ib WA. More like, if there is a re-established population in the Cascades, then they can try to justify hunting them elsewhere.
Ethically, no animal should be made extinct for human interests. I as a taxpayer would be willing to pay to return wildlife to their rightful homes. I thought Zinke was giving the old bait and switch with making a suggestion about returning grizzlies to the Cascades, knowing full well it would not fly (at least the first time. I hope others keep trying). This IMO was to make the hunting in the GYE a little more palatable to the casually interested.