BE BEAR AWARE

Let’s keep our bears wild and alive, and our residents safe.

We are blessed in Routt County to live in black bear habitat. However, bears are not equally blessed to live near us. Every year local bears are euthanized as they become habituated to humans and inhabit human surroundings.

Though usually wary of humans, bears will forage in human neighborhoods if they can find a food source, which far too often is an unsecured trash can or open dumpster. Bears often lose their natural fear of people as they become habituated to finding food around humans. Sadly, this scenario often leads to the death of the bear.

A bear that is comfortable around humans, and associates humans with food sources, is a potentially dangerous bear. When found, the bear is given at most one more chance to live wildly, by relocating the bear far away from its original location and tagged. If the bear is found searching for food around humans again it is often euthanized.

This is exactly what happened to a young cinnamon-colored bear (shown below) in Steamboat Springs. He was found raiding trash cans and dumpsters near downtown Steamboat Springs, and relocated near Milner. He was subsequently found raiding a bee hive near Meeker, and euthanized.

You can help!

This didn’t have to happen. It happened because people didn’t secure their trash in Steamboat Springs. Dumpsters should be closed and secured, and trash should be kept inside the garage or other protected locations. Similarly, locking our car doors is important. A bear can smell a single breath mint in a vehicle, and many appear to have mastered opening the door by pawing at it. We should position bird feeders so that they are out of reach of bears, and generally keep any food source secured. Securing our trash may be an inconvenience for us, but not doing so can be a death sentence for the bear, as it was for this bear.

Please follow the following bear aware practices. Let’s keep our bears wild and alive, and our residents safe!