Take action for grizzly bear recovery in the North Cascades

WILD NW Action Alert #304: The Trump Administration recently “terminated” plans to recover grizzly bears in the North Cascades. Send your Members of Congress a message saying you support grizzly recovery in the North Cascades guided by science and community input.

After six years of public input and scientific study, and more than 130,000 supportive public comments, the Trump Administration recently “terminated” plans to recover grizzly bears to the North Cascades.

We’re disappointed by this decision, and the lack of transparency around it, but we’re not giving up on grizzly bear recovery. We believe the Endangered Species Act will prevail in the end.

Help us send a message of your support to your elected leaders!

Recent public comment periods and polling show that roughly 80 percent of respondents support grizzly restoration in the backcountry in and around North Cascades National Park, including residents on both sides of the Cascade Crest.

Despite 10,000 square miles of excellent habitat, fewer than ten grizzly bears remain in the North Cascades today, and they need help before it’s too late.

Use our easy action form to send your Members of Congress a message saying you support grizzly recovery in the North Cascades guided by science and community input!

Suggested comments to elected leaders supporting grizzly recovery

Dear Members of Congress and Governor Inslee,

The recent announcement by the Trump Administration’s Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt to “terminate” North Cascades grizzly bear recovery efforts is a big disappointment for me and my family.

As a constituent who cares about Washington’s native wildlife, I urge you to support North Cascades grizzly bear recovery planning, led by the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whenever future opportunities arise.

Washingtonians care deeply about the health of our wild places, which in turn depends on having healthy populations of all our native wildlife, including grizzly bears.

At 10,000 square miles of mostly public land anchored by North Cascades National Park and several designated Wilderness areas, the North Cascades is the wildest place remaining in the Pacific Northwest region, and one of the wildest left in the lower 48 states. It’s one of only five areas biologists believe is big and wild enough to support grizzly bear recovery, and the only federally-designated Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone outside the Rocky Mountains.

The science is clear this area is big and wild enough for a small population of grizzly bears to coexist with people who live, work and recreate in our area, just as people coexist with these bears in other states and Canadian provinces.

Importantly, I also care deeply about the health of our democracy and the rule of law, which guarantees every citizen’s right to participate meaningfully in decisions that are intended to protect nature now and for future generations. More than 130,000 people submitted public comments supportive of grizzly bear recovery in the North Cascades, along with dozens of supportive resolutions from local residents, communities, Native American tribes and conservationists.

Recent public polling has similarly found approximately 80 percent support for grizzly restoration among Washingtonians, including area residents from Omak and Winthrop to Bellingham and Mount Vernon and beyond.

Yet this overwhelming support was cast aside by the Trump Administration’s decision to halt, with misleading statements and without transparency, the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Restoration Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)—an initiative that spanned years of public process and three decades of work by federal scientists to ensure that grizzly bear recovery is feasible and could succeed in Washington’s North Cascades and a small number of other very wild areas across the American West.

Restoring a small number of these bears to the North Cascades to jumpstart population recovery would be a once in a lifetime conservation success story–if we allow it to be written.

We are not giving up on restoring grizzlies to the wilds of the North Cascades. The Endangered Species Act and federal grizzly bear recovery plans require grizzly restoration work in the North Cascades, and Washingtonians strongly support it. Action is urgently needed to save the North Cascades grizzly bear.

I ask that you support the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other wildlife agencies when they renew their decades-long effort to bring back this wilderness icon to North Cascades National Park and surrounding wild areas.

More information and testimonials are available www.northcascadesgrizzly.org.

 

Learn more about grizzly bear recovery, including Frequently Asked Questions, videos, testimonials, resolutions of support from local leaders and Native American tribes, and more at northcascadesgrizzly.org.