The federal government has announced plans to restore grizzly bears to an area of northwest and north-central Washington, where they were largely wiped out. The National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to release three to seven bears a year for five to 10 years in order to achieve an initial population of 25. The ultimate goal is to restore the population in the region to 200 bears within 60 to 100 years. Grizzlies are considered threatened in the Lower 48 and currently occupy four of six established recovery areas in parts of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and northeast Washington. The bears for the restoration project will come from areas with healthy populations, as there has been no confirmed evidence of a grizzly within the North Cascades Ecosystem in the U.S. since 1996.
Don Striker, superintendent of North Cascades National Park Service Complex, expressed excitement about the restoration effort, stating, “We are going to once again see grizzly bears on the landscape, restoring an important thread in the fabric of the North Cascades.” It is unclear when the restoration effort will begin, as fragmented habitat due to rivers, highways, and human influences make it unlikely that grizzlies would naturally repopulate the region. The park service noted that most of the grizzly population in the North Cascades was removed by killing during the 1800s, and the remaining population faced challenges such as difficulty finding mates and slow reproductive rates. The federal agencies plan to designate the bears as a “nonessential experimental population” to allow for greater management flexibility in case of conflict situations, which could involve relaxed rules under the Endangered Species Act allowing people to harm or kill bears in self-defense or for agencies to relocate bears involved in conflict.
The U.S. portion of the North Cascades ecosystem is similar in size to the state of Vermont and includes habitat for dens and various animal and plant life that would provide food for bears. Much of the region is federally managed, providing a suitable environment for the restoration of grizzly bears. The plan focuses on the U.S. side of the greater North Cascades Ecosystem, which extends into Canada. The restoration effort is crucial in restoring an important species to the ecosystem and is part of ongoing efforts to conserve and protect wildlife in the region. The federal government’s plans to reintroduce grizzly bears to northwest and north-central Washington represent a significant step towards restoring a key component of the area’s natural heritage.
