Navy SEALs No Longer Using Washington State Parks for Training Amid Lawsuit

Navy SEALs perform Advanced Cold Weather training to experience the physical stress of the environment and how their equipment will operate, or even sound, in adverse conditions in Kodiak, Alaska on December 14, 2003. Photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Eric S. Logsdon/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

U.S. Navy SEALs will not be permitted to train in Washington state parks, pending a lawsuit that arose after residents raised concerns over seeing “armed men.”

The decision comes after attorneys for the Whidbey Environmental Action Network, who filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission in March 2021, argued in a legal brief last month that residents may feel on edge if Navy SEALs continue to use parks for training.