Interior Secretary Zinke has voiced his support for a grizzly bear recovery plan for the North Cascades Ecosystem/North Cascades Institute

A little more than three months after the Interior Department directed the National Park Service to halt work on a plan to help grizzly bears return to the North Cascades Ecosystem in Washington state, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has come down in support of the effort.

“Restoring the grizzly bear to the North Cascades Ecosystem is the American conservation ethic come to life,” said Secretary Zinke in a prepared statement. “We are managing the land and the wildlife according to the best science and best practices. The loss of the grizzly bear in the North Cascades would disturb the ecosystem and rob the region of an icon. We are moving forward with plans to restore the bear to the North Cascades, continuing our commitment to conservation and living up to our responsibility as the premier stewards of our public land.”

It was mid-December when North Cascades Superintendent Karen Taylor-Goodrich said her staff was directed to stop work on the recovery plan.

“We were in the process of evaluating public comment,” the superintendentren said at the time. “We’re in year three of the process and all the public scoping has been done. The draft EIS went out for public review in spring and we’ve received about 127,000 comments.”

Secretary Zinke traveled to Sedro-Woolley, Washington, on Friday to announce his support for the restoration plan. He emphasized the cultural and spiritual importance of grizzly bears in tribal communities, the contributions grizzly bears make to the biodiversity of the ecosystem, and the ecological devastation that the permanent loss of grizzly bears would cause if nothing is done.

National Parks Conservation Association staff applauded the endorsement, but also noted the hold Interior officials had placed on the plan's development.

“We’ve lost almost a year of progress towards grizzly recovery in the North Cascades, so we’re relieved that Secretary Zinke has decided to take his finger off the ‘pause’ button and allow park and wildlife experts to continue their work," said Rob Smith, NPCA's northwest regional director. “Wildlife science as well as public opinion support restoration of the grizzly bear to the North Cascades for ecosystem health and as a legacy for future generations."

The National Park Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and other cooperating agencies developed a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and conducted numerous public meetings. Over 126,000 comments and correspondence were received on the alternatives. A final Environmental Impact Statement could be released as early as this summer.

The provincial government in British Columbia in December announced it was banning grizzly bear hunting. However, the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are now readying for their first grizzly bear trophy hunts since the animals were first listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1975.