Editor's note: Should grizzly bears be allowed to recover their presence in the North Cascades? While it's possible that some grizzlies have made it down to the North Cascades, if they have it's a very solitary and remote presence. This month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service are holding a series of meetings on a Grizzly Bear Restoration Environmental Impact Statement that examines whether the agencies should actively work toward grizzly bear recovery in the region. In the following opinion piece, Rob Smith, senior director of the National Parks Conservation Association's Northwest Region, speaks out in favor of the bears' recovery.
North Cascades National Park is at the heart of a disappearing opportunity to “save all the pieces” in what the Park Service calls the most rugged mountain range in the Lower 48. One of those pieces is the grizzly. Restoring these rare bears to the North Cascades would be a gift of the natural world to future generations, but time is running out.
Even in some of our most rugged and wild national parks, incredible opportunities for “rewilding” exist, allowing plant and animal species to return, strengthening the health of ecosystems and, in turn, the vitality of our National Park System. In the Northwest, we celebrated last year when the final pieces of the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams were removed, and salmon populations instantly rebounded in areas where they were denied access for decades.
Now, in the North Cascades ecosystem, discussions that have been years in the making have begun to transform into reality, as the National Park Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and U.S. Forest Service have begun a public process to plan for the restoration of a grizzly bear population to the region, including North Cascades National Park.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) strongly supports this first formal step toward recovering an important Pacific Northwest native species that is at risk of disappearing forever. The North Cascades Ecosystem, anchored by North Cascades National Park, contains one of the largest areas of wild and protected land in the lower 48 states and abundant habitat for the animal to thrive. Recovering the population of this native, top predator will have far-reaching benefits across the ecosystem; wherever grizzlies thrive, so does wildness, clean water, and abundant native fish and wildlife.
While a few grizzly bears have been sighted in the Canadian part of the North Cascades Ecosystem, no grizzly bears have been sighted in the United States portion for several years. There are as many as 50 grizzlies in the Selkirk Mountain Ecosystem northeast of Spokane, Washington, and confirmed sightings have occurred in northcentral Washington in recent years.
The current scoping period, open through March 26, marks progress in a three-year, public engagement process. Within this time, it is important that supporters of our national parks, wildlife, and wild places get involved. Scoping will help develop a roadmap for the agencies to follow in developing their environmental impact report; a draft of which we would hope to see next year. NPCA calls for the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to include at least one alternative that focuses on augmenting the grizzly bear population with bears that currently reside outside of the North Cascades Recovery Zone, if the science shows that this is needed to create a healthy self-sustaining population in the North Cascades. We will be looking for information within the draft EIS that is backed by science and includes the number of bears needed for a self-sustaining population.
Like many efforts that require careful planning, the road to grizzly bear recovery within North Cascades National Park and the greater ecosystem is a long process that will continue for years to come. NPCA is encouraged by these positive next steps and forward-thinking vision shown by the agencies in embarking on this effort. As we look towards the 2016 centennial of our National Park Service and the next 100 years to come, restoring wildlife populations that support the vitality of our most treasured places through efforts like grizzly bear restoration in the North Cascades Ecosystem is an appropriate and needed role for our National Park Service to lead. Grizzly bears have historically helped make North Cascades National Park a spectacular, diverse piece of wild America -- and that’s worth protecting.
Rob Smith is Senior Director of the Northwest Region for the National Parks Conservation Association.
Comments
People certainly should have the chance to expess their opinions on any matter of public policy....but I don't think agencies should be expected to devote the time (and money) required to offer "open-mic" comments at every step in the process. As stated above, that was not the purpose of these recent "open house" meetings.
When "have your say" sessions are held, you will get quite a range of comments, some of which add nothing of value to the process of trying to reach a good decision. Witness this quote from a local elected official (from the newspaper article cited above), about the employees holding the recent round of meetings: "They’re no different than their commander in D.C. running rogue with his pencil and phone. Yes, Obama,” said Jim DeTro, Okanogan County commissioner.
Argarlite had a good description for such comments: "showboaters."
Lee - you have me nodding my head.
Some fine comments, especially from Roger & Lee. Dismissing opposition as ignorance or 'showboating' seems to me to contribute to the polarization so prevalent in today's politics.
Restoration planning is fine, but I think the government scientists underestimate the bear's current distribution. In the long-run, griz will go where they want to, as they have been doing for at least the past two decades. The Columbia Gorge transportation corridor is a formidable barrier, but if they have already crossed I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass, then who knows what the future holds?
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19930930&id=oY5TAAAAIBAJ&...
There have also been quite a few sightings reported from the William O. Douglas Wilderness on the opposite side of Mount Rainier.
Sorry, Tahoma, but when an elected public official derides field level employees who are trying to provide information at a public meeting by comparing them to "Obama, running rogue with pencil and phone," that's the kind of behavior that "contributes to the polarization so prevalent in today's politics."
Opposition to any issue should absolutely be allowed, but it needs to be civil. What it isn't, in this case, it's political grandstanding, and "showboating" is an appropriate description.
The power company held similar "open house" format meetings when deciding where to run a new high-voltage transmission line. We went, toured the various booths and looked at maps and routes and talked with the company reps, then filled out questionaires expressing our opinion and went home. Took about an hour. I shudder to think what a public-speaking meeting would be like: Long-winded, passionate believers on either side hogging the mic and arguing back and forth and on and off topic while the rest of us just get sore buns sitting on metal chairs!
As for the issue of the grizzlies, two thoughts: 1) People in Alaska seemed to have figured out how to coexist and even turn the bears into a tourist attraction! and 2) where I live, we have rattlesnakes. As long as they stay off my front porch and out of my garage and barn I don't shoot 'em because I figure they were here first.