In the region with the most bear conflict in Colorado, state wildlife agency invests in community projects that remove temptation
Northwest communities receive around $724,000 for bear-proofing trash cans, structures and more
DJ Hannigan/Courtesy Photo
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is infusing funding into communities that are seeking to reduce their top bear attractants as conflicts between humans and bears persist.
On Thursday, Aug. 22, the wildlife agency announced the most recent recipients of its Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Community Grant, which was created by state law in 2021.
The agency awarded just under $1 million to 15 communities across Colorado as part of the 2024 grant cycle. Of these, eight were located in the northwest region, which consistently has the most bears and bear-human conflict in Colorado.
“We all have a responsibility to keep bears wild,” said Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “It’s really great to see community support for these very easy and preventable things that we can put in place to help bears find the best food resources.”
All of the grant recipients are working to reduce attractants to bears in areas where wildlife-human interfaces are common.
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According to 2023 data from the wildlife agency, there were 1,228 reports of bears in Colorado’s Northwest region last year — the highest in the state by a large margin.
As with previous years, the agency’s wildlife Area 8 had the highest number of reports, by a large margin, in the entire state. The area had 724 reports in 2023. This area includes Eagle and Pitkin Counties as well as the easternmost portion of Garfield County including Glenwood Springs. Of these reports, 429 came from Pitkin County, the most of any county in the state.
Removing temptation for bears
Colorado Parks and Wildlife breaks up its annual bear reports based on sightings and various types of “attractant-related property damage.” While sightings account for the majority of reports, trash incidents are the second highest in nearly every area in the Northwest.
“Bears are incredibly smart,” Van Hoose said. “They know that a trash can has food for them, and they memorize trash days in neighborhoods, so they will come back and know that on this certain street, on this day, they can go back for food.”
“Other” attractants — which the agency lists as including pet food, bird seed, BBQ grills, compost, fridge/freezer, cooler and koi ponds — are also high on the reports for many of the region’s areas.
As trash accounts for most bear issues, all of the grant recipients are seeking to address this challenge by enclosing trash or investing in bear-resistant trash cans.
Below are the eight projects in Northwest Colorado, out of 15 total in the state, that received funding in the 2024 human-bear conflict reduction grant cycle:
- $193,056 for food lockers at five dispersed campsites in the White River National Forest
- $113,460 to fortify the dumpster area at Quail Run in Steamboat Springs
- $104,500 for residential bear-resistant trash cans and to enclose a shared dumpster in the area around the Pitkin County landfill
- $84,400 for bear-resistant trash cans in “areas of high conflict” in Silverthorne and Frisco
- $64,504 for food lockers at Dry Lake Campground in Routt County
- $64,260 for bear-resistant trash cans and the replacement of fruiting trees in Aspen parks and open space areas
- $50,050 for bear-resistant trash cans in “areas of high conflict” in Eagle County
- $50,000 to barricade an “oft-visited dumpster” in Snowmass Village
“The regular trash cans just aren’t sturdy enough to resist bears; they’re knocked down easily, and then bears can just paw at it and get the lid open,” Van Hoose said, adding that the wildlife-resistant cans are “very effective.”
Emily Seddon, the natural resources manager for Eagle County, noted that “of all the management techniques used to reduce human-bear conflicts, removing access to waste and other attractants has been the most successful, which provides a practical long-term solution to mitigate human-bear conflict.”
Joanne Cook, Silverthorne’s assistant town manager, said that the grant will allow the town to “continue replacing existing trash cans with bear-resistant trash cans, further limiting encounters with residents and visitors” in key areas.
This predominantly includes areas where the town property lines up with the National Forest, Cook added. On the town’s eastern border, this includes the Ptarmigan wilderness, North Pond Park and Angler Mountain Trailhead. On its western border, it includes the Eagle’s Nest wilderness including Maryland Creek Ranch, Willow Creek Trailhead and Arctic Placer Park.
Eagle County received funding from this same grant in 2023 to place bear-resistant containers in “public places” throughout the county, Seddon reported. However, it wasn’t enough.
“Through that process, there were requests from partner organizations for bear-proof trash cans to be distributed at more locations in the county than what the grant funding received in 2023 could cover,” Seddon said.
In Eagle County, all of its municipalities are located within black bear habitat, “meaning that most of the communities in Eagle County are areas that experience bear-human conflict regularly, causing concerns for human safety and safety for bears,” and could be eligible for the cans, Seddon said.
While it is typically the waste haulers that provide wildlife-resistant bins or residents have to purchase bins themselves, Lara Xaiz, Aspen’s wildlife coordinator, said that the town will use its funds to purchase a stockpile of these bins for places that have issues.
“If somebody’s can gets broken into or compromised in any way, we’ll show up with a free can for somebody; and that’s a really good resource to have because the more we can fill in those roles for people, the better,” Xaiz said. “It’s $450 a can, plus $400 in shipping just to ship one.”
The town of Aspen is also the only grant recipient that has a non-trash-related use for its funds: removing fruit trees.
“Our crab apple trees have always been attractive for bears,” Xaiz said. “Whether they’re on the trees or have fallen and kind of lumping together on the ground, bears will sit and just gorge on the crab apples all day long.”
This, Xaiz added, “brings them in close proximity with people.”
“They get used to the sound of people, the sight of people, the smell of people’s dogs, and then they just get too comfortable with people,” she said.
What’s happening in bear country this year?
While the 2023 numbers reflect a decline in reports from previous years, there is no guarantee that the trend will continue. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has not released bear data from 2024. However, anecdotally, the agency and communities are noticing higher levels of conflict than last year.
Van Hoose said the bear reports vary year to year, primarily depending on what natural food sources are available for bears and what mitigating factors humans are doing to keep bears in their natural habitat. This year has been a “food failure year,” Van Hoose said.
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen this year, 2024, is that there’s a huge lack of natural food resources for bears,” Van Hoose said. “There’s not choke cherries or berries or things that they can forage for in the wild, and that’s why we’re seeing a lot more bears going into more towns.”
In Aspen, there’s been “an uptick in activity this summer,” Xaiz said.
“Last summer, we had a really good natural food source, so we didn’t have them quite as desperate for food,” Xaiz said.
And with the “poor natural food source,” this summer, bears have been “coming into town a lot more and being a lot more aggressive about getting into trash than they have in the past,” Xaiz said.
Becoming ‘bear aware’
Removing attractants like fruit trees and trash becomes even more critical as bears prepare for hibernation each fall.
As in most years, 2023 bear activity in the Northwest peaked in July with 370 of the region’s reports made that month. June was the second-most active month with 342 reports, followed by 113 reports in August. Across the state, the agency stated that over half of bear incident reports in 2023 occurred in August, September and October.
“Bears are moving into the time of summer where they’re having to go from getting 5,000 calories a day to eating 20,000 calories a day to get ready for hibernation,” Xaiz said. “It’s going to be a really busy late summer and fall.”
Twenty thousand calories is the equivalent of 20 chicken sandwiches, 10 large orders of French fries, 10 soft drinks and 10 milkshakes, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
In reducing human-bear conflicts, the goal is not only to protect humans and prevent bears from habituating to humans but to protect the animals as well.
According to a bear management plan from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, “bears involved in conflicts are handled according to (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) policy at the discretion of the field officer or supervisor.”
“Depending on the situation, conflict bears may be targeted for hazing or capture. Captured bears are either relocated or euthanized,” it states.
In 2023, bear conflicts resulted in a total of 18 bears being euthanized and three being relocated within the Northwest region. In wildlife Area 8, zero bears were relocated and eight were euthanized in 2023. Seven of these were in Pitkin County.
In Area 9, which includes Summit and Grand counties, there was one bear relocation and six euthanized bears in 2023. In Area 10, which includes the majority of Routt County and all of Jackson County, one bear was relocated while four from Routt were euthanized.
As is the underlying goal of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s community grant and the projects it funds, the responsibility is on every community member and guest in the state’s bear country to be “bear aware,” as the agency puts it.
“Preventing bears from relying on human food sources takes a community effort, and it’s important that we all take proactive steps to limit human food sources in order to avoid any possible conflicts with bears and bear-proof our homes,” states Brad Banulis, the agency’s senior wildlife biologist for the Northwest region, in a Friday press release.
