More grizzly bears are coming to the Pacific Northwest [Video]

SEATTLE —Grizzly bears will soon return to the North Cascades.

The National Parks Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service filed a decision Thursday outlining a plan to capture three to seven grizzlies from other ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains or interior British Columbia and release them in the North Cascades each summer for five to 10 years. The goal is to rebuild a population of 200 bears in a century. In the Lower 48 states, the bears are a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The agencies plan to designate the bears as a “nonessential experimental population” to provide “greater management flexibility should conflict situations arise.”

Under this designation, some of the rules under the Endangered Species Act are relaxed, allowing people to harm or kill the bears in self-defense, or for agencies to relocate bears involved in conflict. The designation will allow landowners to call on …