A step forward for North Cascades grizzly bears
Apr 03, 2009
Washington's Representative Rick Larsen supports an appropriations earmark of $1 million for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to move forward with recovering the endangered North Cascades grizzly bear.
The recovery plan for North Cascades grizzly bears could soon begin, at long last.
At last, good news for the North Cascades grizzly bear. A long-neglected recovery plan could now move forward thanks to popular support. Congressional Representative Rick Larsen has requested an appropriations earmark of $1 million for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to begin recovering the endangered bears. That's a significant step forward to protecting the precarious North Cascades population, the last remaining grizzly bears in Washington outside of bears which live in the Rocky Mountain Selkirks in extreme northeast Washington.
Less than 20 of the reclusive bears are thought to remain today in the North Cascades, although their presence was one of the reasons behind creation of the North Cascades National Park 40 years ago.
A poll conducted in 2006 by the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project showed very high support for recovery of bears from people polled who live near the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone.
