A year after the Bear Working Group secured grant funding to staff a bear resource officer position, the position has been eliminated because of funding constraints.
Meanwhile, bear reports are up nearly 40% in La Plata County over last year, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The agency has trapped 15 bears in the county so far this year – five times as many as last year – and some people are scratching their heads as to why.
According CPW Durango Area Wildlife Manager Adrian Archuleta, forage is spotty around Southwest Colorado. Acorns crops in some areas have not filled in as expected, although berries have been in plentiful supply.
“It’s been as busy as one of those food failure years,” said Bryan Peterson, director of Bear Smart Durango, an organization that spearheads efforts to reduce human-bear conflict. “And I’m not sure why, because their food seems OK.”
Each fall, bears begin to prowl for 20,000 calories daily in order to prepare for winter hibernation. Bruins that find food in trash cans, on front porches, in bird feeders or campsites learn to seek out those locations when searching for food. And that causes conflict, hence the adage “a fed bear is a dead bear.”
Both the county and the city of Durango have codes dictating that residents store refuse in bear-resistant containers. The city is reporting that code enforcement is experiencing the most active bear year in over a decade.
Archuleta said homes near Vallecito and parts of Durango are seeing more consistent conflict issues.
In the county, it was Clarence Dotson, who worked under the Animal Control department at the La Plata County Humane Society, who did most of the community education around bear conflict.
The officer patrolled the county looking for tipped trash cans, loaned out equipment intended to reduce bear conflict and helped set up electric fences and other hazing devices.
But funding for the position ran out July 1.
A 2022 Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Grant secured by the Bear Working Group had funded the position through 2024, but half the officer’s salary for the remaining part of the year was not accounted for. Peterson had hoped the county would foot the bill.
The humane society is an independent nonprofit funded through a variety of contracts and revenue streams including a significant contribution and contract with the county. The organization applied for the same CPW grant to fund another three years of the bear resource officer position, but was only awarded a year’s worth of funding.
Citing costly overhead and an abundance of other responsibilities, the organization declined the year’s worth of funding.
“We just decided that it really wasn’t enough to justify putting our time and resources into establishing an officer position if we didn’t get the full funding,” said Julie Dreyfuss, the organization’s executive director.
The working group did not submit a competing application for the latest round of CPW funding to avoid jeopardizing the position’s funding.
“We felt like, especially with Bear Smart Durango leading the way and Colorado Parks and Wildlife … that it just seemed like they could take over those responsibilities,” Dreyfuss said.
Peterson, who now responds to reports made to the bear hotline, said he is hearing reports of encounters almost every day.
CPW officers, who manage bears but are not responsible for ordinance enforcement, have responded to 361 bear reports in La Plata County so far this year, a jump from 259 reports last year. That trend holds true in Montezuma County, where officers have responded to 115 incidents so far compared with 66 last year.
Generally, wildlife officers will first try to mitigate bear-human conflict by moving eliminating the attractive food source, sometimes in addition to hazing the bear with devices such as electrified “unwelcome mats.” If a problem bear does not respond, officers can trap and relocate or even euthanize bears in some circumstances.
CPW has set 52 traps in La Plata County this year and caught 15 bears, including a sow with three cubs captured from Durango on Aug. 23.
Our camera phone blew over in the wind right as the sow was being released. But here are some still photos of her shortly after she rumbled out of the trap and was joined by her cubs. pic.twitter.com/wgOGPuP3K5
— CPW SW Region (@CPW_SW) August 26, 2024
The agency has also euthanized 11 bears in the county this year, of which five killed livestock or caused property damage, four entered occupied homes and two for humane reasons.
Archuleta urges residents to make contact about bear problems early, before bad habits become too ingrained.
“If we have reports of a bear starting to test out, you know, doors or windows around the home, we’ve been issuing some deterrent unwelcome mats and those have helped in those situations,” he said.
In the absence of a dedicated officer, much of the bear-related work in the county has fallen to Peterson and CPW.
Fruit trees are causing issues, Peterson said, and he urged owners to contact the Good Food Collective for harvesting assistance. City residents who need a bear resistant trash can should call 375-5004, and all bear sightings and other incidents can be reported the bear hotline at 247-BEAR (2327) or to CPW at 247-0855.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
