As the days get slightly cooler, residents in bear habitats need to consider how they will discourage conflicts with wild neighbors. Likely bears will enter a yard, following the smell of rotting garbage or ripe fruit.
Thanks to a grant from Colorado’s Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Program, towns like Snowmass Village can now afford to make all residential curbside trash cans bear-safe containers. Thirteen other projects throughout the state also received funds for similar initiatives.
The harvest season also brings a unique challenge to living in the Wildland Urban Interface, as there is no shortage of backyard fruit trees. These trees can beautify a property or provide a little extra food for tables, but their inclusion can also entice bears. One way to prevent conflicts with bears over fruit trees is simply to use the fruit. By doing so property owners can remove a bear’s reason for visiting the property in the first place. There are even companies and non-profits who will do the picking instead. Carbondale-based Uproot Colorado offers a gleaning service, where they put the fruit they pick towards community members dealing with food insecurity.
