Snowmass Village – Even in a community that is a vanguard of bearproofing in America, the battle of wits between bruins and humans is never-ending.
New bear-deflecting tactics are expected to be needed in what is shaping up to be a second straight bad bear year, with 20 calls already to Snowmass wildlife officials. One bear has poked its head in a doggie door. Another has ripped at the metal around a skylight in an attempt to make an aerial entrance. One bruin has been pushing at windows and doors in a burglar-like test for weak spots.
“If they are doing that already, it’s kind of a clue that we’re in for some trouble,” said Tina White, who, along with Laurie Smith, provides full-time animal-control services for Snowmass Village.
The community of about 1,800 residents passed the country’s first Wildlife Protection Ordinance in 1992 and now is considered one of the most heavily bearproofed towns in Colorado, if not the nation.
Hefty fines are levied for feeding bears or having trash cans that aren’t bearproof or for putting those cans outside except for specific times on trash days.
To avoid the fines that can go as high as $500, humans are trained through roadside warning signs, posters, radio messages and refrigerator magnets with “never feed the bears” reminders.
The bears in this area that wildlife officers call “bear central” confront behavior-changing tactics as well.
Bears that have decided berries are for the birds and doughnuts and other disposed treats are more to their taste are increasingly being stymied by vaultlike metal trash containers that can cost four figures when bolted to concrete pads. Bears leave hungry from reinforced cans with tricky latches that have passed a test with Yellowstone National Park grizzlies. They claw at, but get no treats from, concrete bunkers that hide an entire neighborhood’s garbage.
But after more than 200 bear reports last year, Snowmass wildlife officials are trying even harder this year.
They are promoting more electric fences for beehives and livestock feed and preparing to tranquilize and trap some nuisance bears on site and then scare the daylights out of them with bean bags, rubber buckshot and firecrackers so the bruins will have no desire to return.
If the bears do return, the Snowmass ordinance calls for two strikes before a bear must be destroyed, something officers in the Aspen district of the state Division of Wildlife had to do nearly a dozen times last year.
Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Division of Wildlife, said since spring bear hunting ceased in the mid-1990s, many people believe the state has seen an increase in the number of bears.
“The reality is that the numbers of bears are not increasing. What is increasing is the conflicts in some communities.”
Kevin Wright, the division’s Aspen district manager, said Snowmass is a good model for bear-bothered communities because it has struck the right balance between bear deterrence, human responsibility and the treatment of bears as intelligent, human-tolerant wildlife.
Aspen, Basalt and Pitkin County have used the three-page Snowmass ordinance as the basis for their bear laws.
Pitkin County is strengthening its ordinance with tougher restrictions on acceptable trash cans and fines of up to $1,000. The town of Aspen is cracking down on plastic cans and trash placed outside at the wrong times. Glenwood Springs is hosting a pilot program with DOW that includes shooting bears with paint balls and annoying them with loud noises when they root around in city trash. Durango and Steamboat Springs have patterned ordinances on the one used by Snowmass, with Steamboat getting an aggressive jump by handing out 52 tickets last week.
White of Snowmass Village said towns across the country that are experiencing increases in bear problems as more humans move into the mountain- shrub zone are calling regularly, asking for bear advice and copies of the ordinance.
“Yes, we’re on the cutting edge,” said Snowmass Mayor Douglas “Merc” Mercatoris, who helped write the original bear ordinance 13 years ago.
Mercatoris is among those who views bears as long-clawed citizens of sorts.
They were in the brushy draws of Snowmass Village first, he said, and are only doing what comes naturally in their human-invaded habitat.
“We consider these bears our neighbors,” Mercatoris said. “I look at them as part of my constituency even though they don’t vote.”
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
