By Graham Taylor, Wildlife Committee Chair, Washington State Sierra Club
Washington’s North Cascades are where the wild things are. The rugged landscape boasts glacial peaks and basins, lush forests, and spectacular opportunities to experience seclusion. Teeming with wildlife, fish, and flora, the landscape enjoys national park status that requires us to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations…”
Sadly, a legacy of relentless hunting and trapping has impaired the North Cascades, resulting in the disappearance of one of its most iconic inhabitants, the grizzly bear. The first time I saw a grizzly bear in the wild was at Yellowstone National Park. I pulled over alongside a long line of cars in the Hayden River Valley. There, across the river was a big bear, in full hyperphagia, a state of rabid eating that bears go through to bulk up for winter hibernation. Despite the river between us, I stood in awe of the creature. It’s head was deep in an elk, periodically coming up for air, and to bat away a scavenging raven.
I’m hard pressed to fully describe what it means to have places still wild enough for the grizzly bear. Meaning is a tricky thing, different to all people, and changing through the course of our lives. But perhaps one unshakeable thing grizzly bears represent is the hope that we humans have the power to consider all things, and share our planet with other creatures. At the end of the day, grizzly recovery means we can restore pieces of nature that we’ve destroyed. It means that we can learn from the past, and chart a future where wild places are a treasured inheritance for our children, rather than leaving a legacy of extraction that continues to wipe out entire populations of wildlife.
Once again, the National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are taking public comments on grizzly bear restoration in Washington’s North Cascades. They’ve set forth a potential plan to bring 25 bears into the landscape. This gives the agencies the opportunity to monitor and manage them closely and spend the next 100 years trying to reach a goal of 200 bears. In a landscape roughly the size of Massachusetts, it seems like there may be enough room for 200 grizzly bears, but only if humans allow it.
Now is perhaps our last chance to support these agencies in meeting their mission to protect this landscape and the critters that bring it to life. Now is our opportunity to protect the land where the wild things are. Simple support for Alternative C: Incremental Restoration lets agencies know where you stand on the issue. You can submit your comment online using the draft language provided below. In the heart of the Cascades lives the essence of wildness. The wildness there is not only a feeling one can experience, but a property that is not guaranteed. If we can restore the grizzly to this majestic landscape, we’ll leave our parks and planet better than we found it.
Draft Language:
Dear Superintendent Taylor-Goodrich,
I appreciate your efforts to restore grizzly bears to Washington’s North Cascades. I support Alternative C: Incremental Restoration as the best recovery option. Adding 20-25 bears to the park should help bring bears back, while doing so at a pace that helps people adapt to the changes grizzly bear recovery will bring. Please do all you can to make sure the park has grizzly bears for generations to come.
Signed,
xxxxx