Grizzly bears, common in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, could be recovered in the North Cascades of Washington state/NPS file

The on and then off efforts to consider a grizzly bear recovery plan for the North Cascades of Washington state, including North Cascades National Park, are on again.

President Trump's first Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, supported such a plan, but his successor, David Bernhardt, did not and killed the effort. That led in late 2020 to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity that maintained the Trump administration's abandonment of the program violated the Endangered Species Act and was based on politics, not a conservation-driven decision.

On Thursday, the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the launch of a new Environmental Impact Statement process to evaluate options for restoring and managing grizzly bears in the North Cascades, where the animals once thrived. 

The EIS process will identify a range of alternatives for restoring the bears to the mountainous region to support the recovery and eventual delisting of grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act in the contiguous United States, a release from the Park Service said. The agencies will also examine a 10(j) experimental population designation, which would give local land managers additional flexibility.  

"I’m extremely encouraged to see federal officials moving forward with a plan to restore grizzly bears in Washington’s North Cascades,” said Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This overturns the Trump administration’s rash termination of these plans, which forced us to launch a legal challenge. Without a helping hand, grizzly bears are likely to disappear from the Pacific Northwest. This new action by the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service is a step in the right direction to put grizzly bears back on the path to recovery.”

The North Cascades is one of the largest wild areas remaining in the lower 48 states, encompassing more than 95,000 square miles in north-central Washington. It includes North Cascades National Park and large areas of surrounding national forest. According to scientists, the area contains prime habitat that could support approximately 280 grizzly bears.

For more than two decades, biologists have been working to recover the North Cascades' grizzlies, a threatened species. And while more than a few reports of grizzly sightings in the ecosystem that stretches north to Canada are received by state and federal officials each year, most turn out to be black bears.

Under the latest proposal, if approved the NPS and the FWS would capture bears from populations in either interior British Columbia or the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Approximately three to seven captured grizzly bears would be released into the North Cascades Ecosystem each year over roughly 5 to 10 years, with a goal of establishing an initial population of 25 grizzly bears. After the initial population of 25 grizzly bears has been reached, an adaptive management phase would allow additional bears to be released into the ecosystem over time to address mortality, population and demographic trends, genetic limitations, and distribution or to adjust the population’s sex ratio to improve reproductive success. The proposed action is expected to result in a population of approximately 200 grizzly bears within 60 to 100 years. 

Back in 2017, Park Service staff at North Cascades was evaluating public comment previously made on the recovery proposal, but Interior officials told them to stop the work. Then, in March 2018, Zinke told the agency to resume the work. But two years later, in July 2020, Bernhardt scrapped the restoration project. At a roundtable with community members in Omak, Washington, he said the work would not move forward.

“(U.S.) Representative (Dan) Newhouse has been a tireless advocate for his community and his constituents regarding plans to reintroduce grizzly bears into the North Cascades Ecosystem,” Bernhard said in a release at the time. “The Trump administration is committed to being a good neighbor, and the people who live and work in north central Washington have made their voices clear that they do not want grizzly bears reintroduced into the North Cascades. Grizzly bears are not in danger of extinction, and Interior will continue to build on its conservation successes managing healthy grizzly bear populations across their existing range.”

The Park Service said Thursday that grizzly bears roamed across the North Cascades for thousands of years "as an essential part of the ecosystem, distributing native plant seeds and keeping other wildlife populations in balance. In the 20th century, humans nearly hunted them to extinction. The last confirmed sighting of a grizzly bear in the U.S. portion of the North Cascades Ecosystem was in 1996." 

“This is a first step toward bringing balance back to the ecosystem and restoring a piece of the Pacific Northwest’s natural and cultural heritage,” said North Cascades Superintendent Don Striker. “With the public’s help we will evaluate a list of options to determine the best path forward.” 
 
The new EIS process will include assessing alternatives to include a 10(j) experimental population designation, which provides land managers with additional options for managing grizzly bears. If adopted, the 10(j) designation would add more certainty, safety, and control for the region.
 
“By designating bears in the area as a 10(j) experimental population, the agencies can have more flexible options available for management. This would give authorities, ranchers, and landowners more options for managing bears to reduce or avoid conflicts while focusing on recovery. The 10(j) experimental population designation would benefit the people and property in local communities, as well as the grizzly bears,” said Hugh Morrison, acting regional director for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 

You can learn more about the process, and leave your comments, at this page.

Virtual public meetings will be held at the following times:

• Tuesday, November 15 at 12 p.m. Pacific Time
• Friday, November 18 at 7 p.m. Pacific Time
• Thursday, December 1 at 12 p.m. Pacific Time
• Friday, December 2 at 7 p.m. Pacific Time

You can find directions for how to attend the meetings at this page.