Bearly There, a Future for the North Cascades Grizzly Bear?

Rose Oliver is the outreach coordinator for Conservation Northwest. Born and raised in the small town of Marblemount, next to the majestic peaks of the North Cascades, Rose has a great love for the outdoors and all of its inhabitants.

Grizzly bears, the very symbol of American wilderness, once roamed over most of western North America, from the mountains of Mexico to the high plains to the Pacific Coast. Before Europeans arrived, some 50,000 to 100,000 grizzly bears lived in the lower 48 states. Over the last 100 years, grizzly bears have been eliminated from 98 percent of their original range in the contiguous United States. Grizzly bears now survive largely in remote wilderness areas, living on less than 2 percent of their former range and numbering fewer than approximately 1,100 bears.

The grizzly bear is not only a symbol of core American values but also a barometer of the health of our big wild areas. A landscape that is healthy and wild enough to support grizzlies will support a host of other native plants and animals and important ecosystem services such as clean water and the wilderness experience.

For the grizzly bear, the North Cascades ecosystem is the second largest recovery area in the lower 48 states (out of six recovery areas, so designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). The North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone includes the North Cascades National Park and much of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Wenatchee and Okanogan National Forests. This habitat is 90 percent federally and state owned; 40 percent is federally protected wilderness and 72 percent has Forest Service roadless status.

There are an additional 6,000 square miles of contiguous grizzly bear habitat north of the U.S. border, in British Columbia, which includes Manning Provincial Park. However, neither B.C. nor the Canadian federal government provides adequate legal protection for the habitat of endangered species, like grizzly bears. B.C. does, however, recognize that its North Cascades grizzlies are among the most endangered in the province.

Government biologists have found that the North Cascades ecosystem has sufficient quantity and quality of habitat to support a self-sustaining population of grizzlies. Since grizzly bears have a slow reproductive rate, second only to the musk ox among North American land mammals, full recovery could take up to a century to achieve.

In 1975, the grizzly bear was federally listed under the Endangered Species Act as a “threatened” species in the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now estimates that there are fewer than 10 grizzly bears in the North Cascades, and they have developed a plan to begin the recovery process of North Cascades grizzlies. However, funding is needed to pursue a public process to implement the recovery plan, and that’s where the public comes in.

People in Washington state and British Columbia have a unique responsibility and opportunity to restore this North American icon. Please contact the USFWS (address below) and ask them to pursue the necessary funding to implement the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan, to secure a future for grizzly bears in the North Cascades. §

USFWS

Ken Berg

Western Washington Fish and Wildlife Office

510 Desmond Drive SE, Ste. 102

Lacey, WA 98503-1263