Groups upset by Trump’s grizzly decision

SPOKANE, WASH. » The forested mountains in and around North Cascades National Park in north central Washington state long have been considered prime habitat for threatened grizzly bears, so environmental groups are upset President Donald Trump’s administration scrapped plans to reintroduce the apex predators there.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt on Tuesday announced his agency will not conduct the environmental impact statement needed to move forward with the idea. That drew rebukes from conservation groups, who have worked for decades to grow the tiny population of grizzlies in the North Cascades, where writer Jack Kerouac spent the summer of 1956 as a lookout for wildfires.

He noted that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke supported grizzly recovery efforts there before leaving the Trump administration.

In 2015, under President Barack Obama, the government began an environmental impact statement planning process on restoring bears in the North Cascades.