A keystone species, the bears are known to till and aerate soil as they search for potato-like roots like Alpine sweetvetch, munch on berries, and later deposit the seeds through their scat. The omnivores love to snatch salmon from the river and will steal kills from other predators.

Studies have suggested the North Cascades can support up to about 280 bears — but when considering the effects of climate change, that number rises to as many as 578 bears, according to the federal agencies. Projected declines in snowpack would result in a decrease in vegetation at the highest elevations, but also an increase in grizzly bear foraging habitat in high-elevation meadows.

Grizzly bears with no history of conflicts with humans and a berry-based diet will be captured from multiple areas and released between June and September, of each year, if everything goes according to plan. The bears would be captured using culvert traps and transported by truck and trailer to staging areas. From there, they would be transported by helicopter to remote places like the Stephen Mather, Pasayten and Glacier Peak wilderness areas.

Some of the best intact grizzly habitat remains here. The U.S. portion of the North Cascades ecosystem is roughly 9,800 square miles, and includes habitat for dens and hundreds of species of plants, animals and insects the bears feast on. Roughly 85% of the mountainous region is under federal management.

"We are going to once again see grizzly bears on the landscape, restoring an important thread in the fabric of the North Cascades," Don Striker, superintendent of North Cascades National Park Service Complex, said in a statement.

The effort to return grizzlies to the North Cascades has been a yearslong on-again off-again effort. And it hasn't been without controversy.

In 2022, the federal agencies initiated the latest effort.

In the fall, the agencies offered three options for the bears' future in the North Cascades: to do nothing, or to reintroduce bears to the area under different levels of federal protection.

During the 45-day public comment period for the draft document, the agencies received over 12,000 public comments. And hundreds of people commented at public meetings across the region. The document containing responses to public comments is over 100 pages.

Some commenters were concerned about human-bear confrontations, and objected to the comparison of the North Cascades to other grizzly recovery zones.

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