North Cascades ecosystem needs its missing grizzly bears

I read with interest The Herald article about reintroducing grizzly bears to the North Cascades (“‘Hell, no to grizzlies’: Darrington locals give federal agencies an earful,” The Herald, Nov. 4). Reading through the article I didn’t see anything mentioned about the ecosystem that exists (or had existed) in that region; or any description from anyone about the impact on that ecosystem once the bears had disappeared (we humans made that happen).

Ecosystems are about balance; one part of that system in some way affects every other part of the system. In effect, reestablishing the bear population could and should return that ecosystem to that balance; if their absence, for however long they were gone, didn’t already restructure that ecosystem in some way.

Wild animals don’t take from the environment, they are “part” of the environment, and live “with” it, in the same way that indigenous peoples have played a similar part; if they take away, they give something back in return. A good example of that is the story about what happened when gray wolves were reintroduced back into Yellowstone Park; and the positive impacts on the environment that occurred due to that reintroduction. You can find that story on YouTube; very interesting!

Jim Bloss

Monroe