Durango group strives to set example in reducing human-bear conflict

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  John Livingston
Southwest Region Public Information Officer
970-759-9590 / [email protected]
@CPW_SW Bryan Peterson
Bear Smart Durango Executive Director
970-749-4262/ [email protected]

DURANGO, Colo. – DURANGO, Colo. – When Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced $1 million worth of funding in 2022 for the Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Community Grant Program, partners rallied to craft a grant proposal that would have a wide-ranging benefit for bears and humans across Durango and La Plata County.

A local Bear Working Group exists in La Plata County with the goal of minimizing human and bear conflict. The group is made up of representatives from the City of Durango, La Plata County, CPW, the U.S. Forest Service, Bear Smart Durango, The Good Food Collective, law enforcement, local waste haulers and other stakeholders.

The group submitted a grant request centered around infrastructure and personnel. After review, the La Plata County Human-Bear Challenge grant request was fully funded by CPW for $206,539, the second-largest grant issued in the state. Thanks to partner matches and in-kind contributions from project partners of $297,135, the five-year project is estimated at a total of $503,932.

“We’ve had great collaboration and look forward to continuing the important work of reducing human-bear conflicts,” said CPW Area Wildlife Manager Adrian Archuleta. “We find ourselves too often with bear conflicts during average or even relatively good bear years for our area. The effort the Bear Working Group has done and is continuing to do to address this through this well-rounded grant will certainly help.”

The infrastructure side of the grant will cover all-metal bear-resistant trash containers, food storage lockers and additional conflict mitigation materials such as electric fencing to protect beehives, chickens, compost, small livestock and more. 

The personnel portion of the grant will create a bear resource officer position within La Plata County as well as a fruit gleaning coordinator position through The Good Food Collective.

“Upon hearing about the Colorado Parks and Wildlife grant, our local Bear Working Group identified needs and developed a roadmap for partners to better address issues on a countywide scale,” said Bryan Peterson, Executive Director of Bear Smart Durango. “This roadmap, the La Plata County Human-Bear Conflict Challenge, challenges partners to reach project goals that will have meaningful impact in reducing human-bear conflict in our area. Everything in this grant aligns perfectly with the mission of Bear Smart Durango.”

In mid-August, a purchase order was approved by CPW for materials totaling $146,539. The ordering of materials is being conducted through the Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado.

Included in the order are 37 all-metal bear-resistant trash containers for Durango School District 9-R, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe campus, City of Durango and Pine River Irrigation District. Each group has committed to purchasing more cans or providing a grant match.

Durango 9-R will receive 20 of the trash cans. Three will go to each middle school, five will be placed at Durango High School and the rest will be divided between the district’s seven elementary schools. The district facilities team, led by Ron Reed, noted several schools have had issues with bears and raccoons in the past, particularly at schools where students eat lunch outside.

"We want to protect our students and our wildlife, and the best way to do this is to not attract critters in the first place,” said Durango 9-R spokesperson Karla Sluis. “Bear-proof cans are excellent deterrents. We are grateful to be a partner through this grant and do our part to allow animals and humans to safely co-exist."

The City of Durango Parks and Recreation Department will place four bear-resistant trash containers at the swim beach at Lake Nighthorse Recreation Area.

“Lake Nighthorse is a beautiful amenity for lake recreation and provides important wildlife habitat to the Durango region,” said Amy Schwarzbach, Natural Resources Manager for City of Durango Parks and Recreation. “Making sure trash at the very popular swim beach does not draw bears and other wildlife to this high-use area is key to preventing harm to wildlife and wildlife conflict with lake visitors.”  

This year’s purchase order will also provide 20 food storage lockers for local San Juan National Forest campgrounds, materials for installing 60 electric fence projects and other conflict mitigation materials such as unwelcome mats, loaner bear-resistant containers and scare devices.
Phoenix Recycling offered to have the all-metal cans and food storage lockers shipped to their facility, where partners will be able to collect them.

In 2023, an additional order will go out for 474 Kodiak residential bear-resistant trash containers for the City of Durango. The cans will go to neighborhoods identified as remaining higher-conflict areas.

“Even with good moisture and decent natural food availability for bears, we still have bears that are in town and hitting unsecured trash and other attractants,” Archuleta said. “The more we’ve learned through Durango bear studies, the more we know the value of bear-resistant containers and the huge benefit they have in preventing bears from returning to neighborhoods and getting into trouble as the city continues to grow.”

The CPW grant will also fund the first two years of a newly created seasonal bear resource officer position through La Plata County. Peterson said it is expected the county and potentially other partners will assume the expense by the third year. Archuleta said the Bear Working Group works hard to educate the public regarding eliminating bear attractants around their homes but said education and enforcement is needed to fully address the problem.

"As La Plata County’s population continues to grow, the likelihood of human-bear interactions will increase as well,” said La Plata County spokesperson Ted Holteen. “An enforcement officer’s first duty would be to provide education for new county residents and especially those moving here from an urban environment to better understand the dangers and take steps to avoid them before any actual enforcement of ordinances becomes necessary. The officer would respond to violations via both complaints from neighbors as well as regular patrols of known problem areas.”

Funding will also go to support a Fruit Gleaning Coordinator position to expand the capacity of the existing position at The Good Food Collective, which will match the grant funding it receives. This will allow the organization to develop and implement an on-demand bear mitigation gleaning strategy.

“Our gleaning program is all about capturing the excess fruit and foods that we have that come out of our area – an estimated 2.3 million pounds of food that go to waste each year,” said Rachel Landis, Director of The Good Food Collective. “We want to be able to capture apples and other food sources before bears come so that we can protect properties and also protect our bear populations.

“With this new grant, we were able to hire two part-time staff that give us extra capacity so that when CPW or Bear Smart calls us and they have an issue, we can actually send our staff out and organize volunteer teams to respond. In addition to saving the bears, all this edible fruit gets donated out to our region’s food banks and pantries to fill a gap we have in fresh, healthy foods going out to the folks who need them most.”

Peterson wants the greater Durango area to be the model for successful human-bear conflict mitigation across the state and beyond. He believes the steps being taken with this grant funding and five-year project help pave that path.

“This grant is amazing, perhaps paradigm-shifting news,” he said. “The grant was designed to kickstart a broader county-wide effort. Big thanks goes to our program partners, and a big bear hug to Tiffany Broderson with Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado for writing the perfect grant. And of course, thank you to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for this amazing opportunity to make a difference in our area.”