NORTH BEND, Wash – The debate to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades has drawn support and criticism.
The National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service drafted a plan to bring the endangered species back to the North Cascades almost 30 years ago as the their numbers were dwindling.
This process has been slow until public meetings held by the federal government around Western Washington in March. In total, nearly 500 people showed up.
The government received more than 3,000 comments throughout the process, with grizzly bears being called "man-eating monsters" to "mystical creatures."
Under the federal government's plan, the protected grizzly bear would be returned to federal lands running from the Canadian border to Wenatchee, and extending west to Darrington and North Bend.
Biologists believe there used to be as many as 100,000 grizzlies on the West Coast. Now, there may be only two dozen left in Washington.
In one of the 3,000 comments, a supporter wrote: "Grizzly bears are an icon that represent healthy wilderness eco-systems in the Pacific Northwest. To sustain an integral part of what makes our country unique and wonderful we must sustain umbrella species such as the grizzly bear."
On the other side, someone posted: "As much as I love wildlife, I am not supportive of re-introduction of grizzlies to Washington state. I also find that hiking in Glacier and Yellowstone to be extremely scary, and I want a wild place to go where I don't have worry about grizzlies."
The federal government is expected to make a final recommendation in late 2017 about whether or not to reintroduce the grizzly bears back to the North Cascades.
