Grizzly bears to be reintroduced to Washington state's North Cascades

The National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday a decision to “actively restore” grizzly bears to the North Cascades region of Washington state.

For thousands of years, grizzly bears roamed the region “as a key part of the ecosystem, distributing native plant seeds and keeping other wildlife populations in balance,” according to NPS.

The last time a grizzly bear was sighted in the region was in 1996, following a decline in population that resulted largely from people killing them.