Tim Nicholson stood Monday in an Estes Park alleyway next to a garbage enclosure behind a downtown restaurant, one with large, bear-sized holes torn into its doors, and dialed a familiar number.
“Good morning, I’d like to report a wildlife protection ordinance violation,” he said, before giving the Estes Park Police Department dispatcher the location and description of the damage.
Nicholson seeks out businesses that are violating the ordinance on his morning rounds, which begin before dawn. Around 4:30 or 5, he sets out with his dog for a 10K through downtown Estes Park, checking dumpsters and enclosures as he goes. He has made the walk for years — long enough to recognize which businesses secure their trash, and which ones, he says, keep leaving food and grease where bears can get into them.
“Businesses are required to secure their trash at all times,” Nicholson said. “Most don’t.”
Nicholson walked through downtown Monday with a Trail-Gazette reporter while explaining what he looks for: a dumpster left open, a damaged enclosure, grease spills on pavement, scraps of food scattered nearby. He takes photographs when he finds a code violation, then calls the police non-emergency line. The point, he said, is not to single out a first-time mistake. He focuses on repeat offenders.
“I pick my battles,” he said.
The code in Estes Park is specific. Commercial refuse stored outside must go in a wildlife-resistant container or enclosure, and food-service businesses must secure oil and grease. If damage lets wildlife reach refuse, repairs must be made within 72 hours. Nicholson pays particular attention to the difference between a screened area — a fence that hides trash from view, but does not keep bears out — and a wildlife-resistant enclosure, which must have four solid walls and a roof, he said.
His campaign began about 20 years ago, when he decided too many bears were being euthanized as a result of their habituation to humans. At first, he focused on a few blocks and worked alone. Seven years ago, Nicholson began teaming up with other residents who walked their dogs in the early mornings.
“We’d text each other, ‘Hey, there’s a bear here,” he said. “We noticed that we kept seeing bears in the same trash every single day.”
That led to Nicholson to start a Facebook group called “Estes Park Wildlife Protection” where people could alert one another to bear sightings. Again and again, Nicholson said, the same bears appeared around the same unsecured trash.
“The motivation was ‘letap change this.’ We don’t want to see this because they really don’t move bears (to a different location) in Estes Park,” he said. “They kill them.”
Larimer County’s “Ordinance for Wildlife Protection Through Refuse Disposal” requires wildlife-friendly trash management practices in the Estes Valley Planning Area.
Nicholson sees that protection as extending beyond bears. He points out that the ordinance concerns wildlife generally, and that unsecured food can draw animals into places where encounters with people become more likely.
As Nicholson made his way through the alleys, he paused at dumpsters he considered properly secured and others he said needed attention. Bear bars, he explained, can help keep lids shut; adding a carabiner or lock can make them harder for a bear to pry open or shift. He pointed out the insufficiency of plastic lids to deter bears, as several were heavily damaged by bear claws and will eventually fail, he said.
In the alley behind a downtown restaurant a garbage enclosure had large holes in its doors. Nicholson said bears had repeatedly enlarged the openings, and that a small piece of plywood placed over one would not keep a bear out. He pointed to food scraps and grease on the ground inside and photographed the damage.
Then he made the call to the police.
Nicholson said the restaurant had previously left dumpsters without lids and had not repaired the enclosure within the required 72-hour period. He said it had recently added bars to the dumpsters, but the holes and attractants remained. His photographs, he said, carry metadata showing when and where each image was taken, evidence he believes helps officers verify what he reports.
He has spent years pressing police and code enforcement to respond. In his view, delayed inspections can mean a violation is gone by the time an officer arrives: trash is collected, a lid is closed, or a temporary fix is put in place. He says he has been threatened by business owners with trespassing.
“You have to push, unfortunately, to get anything done,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson’s frustration is especially sharp because he sees the consequences as cumulative. Bears learn where food can be found, and a location that has rewarded them can keep drawing them back even after a business changes hands.
“Generations of bears are trained by their moms about where to get food,” he said. “So thatap why you see so many in the same areas, and why it is so important that people secure their trash. Because if the people before didn’t, once that bear has been rewarded, itap going to continue to come back to that spot time and time again.”
Not every business Nicholson has reported remains a problem, he said. Some have improved their trash practices after being contacted. He counts that as progress, even if it takes repeated calls and years of attention to get there. His next goals include advocating for stronger fines and securing funding for public trash receptacles downtown and at the fairgrounds.
“(Colorado Parks & Wildlife) is offering grants for bear conflict resolution,” he said. “I’ve always wanted tourist dumpsters so (visitors) have somewhere to put their trash. Advertise them, educate people, put up signage, because when they leave, they’ve got trash and nowhere to take it.”
Nicholson’s persistence has also brought personal conflict. He said one man once showed up at his workplace looking for a fight. But he insists that his focus is not on business owners as individuals.
“My big thing is I don’t make it personal in any way,” he said. “I just want to protect the bears.”
