{"id":23005,"date":"2025-03-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cpw-asks-southwest-colorado-residents-to-secure-trash-other-attractants-as-bears-emerge\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:23:09","slug":"cpw-asks-southwest-colorado-residents-to-secure-trash-other-attractants-as-bears-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cpw-asks-southwest-colorado-residents-to-secure-trash-other-attractants-as-bears-emerge\/","title":{"rendered":"CPW asks Southwest Colorado residents to secure trash, other attractants as bears emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A bear gets into unsecured trash. Trash was responsible for more than half the incidents in which bears caused property damage in Southwest Colorado. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bears will begin to emerge from hibernation any day. On the heels of a conflict-ridden summer, it\u2019s time to ensure that attractants \u2013 trash, livestock and fruit trees chief among them \u2013 are secure, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials.<\/p>\n

CPW has yet to confirm a report of an active bear in the Durango area \u2013 but the agency expects to soon. Bears will be feeding on spring vegetation, insects and, later in the season, berries.<\/p>\n

But, they\u2019ll go for trash and livestock too, officials warn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kindly ask folks to do their part and keep things secure, especially trash and other outside attractants, best as possible,\u201d Durango Area Wildlife Manager Adrian Archuleta said.<\/p>\n

CPW Area 15, composed of Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta and San Juan counties, along with most of Dolores County and parts of Mineral and Hinsdale counties, saw more bear conflict in 2024 than any other region save for Area 8, composed primarily of Pitkin and Eagle counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a healthy bear population and phenomenal habitat down here,\u201d Archuleta said, noting that as the population in La Plata County has grown, so too has the likelihood of human-bear conflict.<\/p>\n

Typically, reports of bear activity peak in Colorado midsummer, according to CPW data released last month.<\/p>\n

There were 133 trash-related incidents reported to the Durango office last year, well over half the total conflicts reported.<\/p>\n

Officials relocated 17 bears from La Plata County last year and euthanized 14, beating out Pitkin County for most relocation statewide. Fewer than 2% of reports led to euthanizations across Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not let bears feel comfortable in our neighborhoods and around our homes. We encourage people to bang pots and pans, set off car alarms, blow horns and otherwise haze bears away from their homes and neighborhoods,\u201d CPW spokesman John Livingston said in an email. \u201cBears make very strong associations. That can be good and bad. They\u2019ll make positive associations when they get a food reward from a bird feeder being up or trash being left out unsecured. The bear gets that food reward, and that means the bear is likely going to come back. That can lead to larger conflict and can also be harmful for the bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the high levels of conflict<\/a> observed midseason, it\u2019s no surprise that more bears were relocated and euthanized in 2024 <\/a>than in any year since 2020.<\/p>\n

CPW is asking anyone who spots a bear or is involved in a bear conflict to call the Durango office at 247-0855.<\/p>\n

CPW is once again soliciting applications for its Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Community Grant Program. Bear Smart Durango previously secured <\/a>a $90,000 award through the program to reduce human-bear conflict in the Durango area. Applications close May 31.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

second-highest for bear conflicts statewide last year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1478,1332,1031,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bear-smart","tag-bears","tag-colorado-parks-and-wildlife","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77940,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23005\/revisions\/77940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23005"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}