Colorado Parks and Wildlife Public Information Officer John Livingston said bears are emerging from their dens and becoming active in mountain towns and a million dollars in grant funding is available this year to help deter them from conflict with humans.

He’s encouraging more entities in Telluride and San Miguel County to consider applying for a portion of the 2024 Human-Bear Conflict Reduction grant funding this year. 

“We’d really love to see some more folks in that Telluride, Norwood and all of the San Miguel County area, look at ways to get some of that funding,” Livingston said. “Whether it’s for various containers in town, or on school campuses, or at any of our national forests’ campgrounds that have food storage lockers, things of that nature.”

Land owners, homeowners’ associations (HOAs), businesses, towns, counties, schools and nonprofits are some of the organizations eligible to apply for the 2024 Human-Bear Conflict Reduction grant. Even trash haulers could apply, he said.

The grant can be used to protect apiaries, chicken coops, orchards and neighborhoods, and therefore help to keep the bears protected, too. The funding could help to purchase electric fencing and “unwelcome mats” to make a bear more likely to move on from visiting areas where there’s human activity. 

“We’ve offered a million dollars worth of funding each of the last two years and we’re doing it again this year,” Livingston said. 

The grant opportunity was announced in April by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the deadline is on May 24. Livingston said that statewide last year, there were 19 applications submitted and a dozen received funding from CPW.

In some areas of Colorado, groups organizing bear prevention efforts have small stockpiles of electric fencing for community bear-proofing needs, he said.

Some beekeepers who strategically place beehives on agricultural lands in the area already use electric fencing to try to deter bears.

Ken Currie, a beekeeper in Norwood, said people who are interested in beekeeping need to have a plan in place to protect their apiaries from bears. 

He’s used electric fencing in the past with some of his apiaries in rural locations.

“It’s just like the cartoons taught us: bears like honey and they’ll go for it,” Currie said. “You have to have some kind of protection in place. You have to account for bears where we live.”

Laura Duncan lives in Ilium and had an established apiary about three miles north of Norwood. Although it was fenced in, Duncan stopped beekeeping after a bear destroyed the apiary.

“I had bad luck and I haven’t had the heart, really, to keep going again,” Duncan told the Daily Planet.

She’s not 100% sure what went wrong. The fence was tall.

“We set up fencing and a system to try to deter the bears from getting into the apiary,” Duncan said. “I tried to do it myself and I think I did a good job, but my apiary was in a pasture with cows and with other animals and I noticed there were areas around the fence where an animal had dug and made a trench underneath the fence.”

She doesn’t know if any other animal, like a badger, had been visiting.

“I don’t know if it was a badger. I don’t know if it was a baby bear. I wish I had a camera so I could have recorded to know exactly what happened,” she said.

She reported the incident to wildlife officials, who she said were “really great” and helpful.

“They were responsive and I appreciated their help,” Duncan said. 

In Redvale, Tammy Armagost is learning about all the ways to protect her new hives from bears. Armagost recently moved to Redvale from Pennsylvania, where she was a longtime beekeeper and bears were a rare visitor.

“Electric fencing is something I am considering,” she said. “We do have bears that come into the canyon here in Redvale.”

She’s also connecting with other beekeepers at Wright’s Mesa and joined the 4 Corners Beekeeping Association to learn more.

Livingston said CPW is happy to help with proactive work to keep bears away from conflict with humans. 

He added that people who think a bear may be visiting their areas should notify CPW as soon as possible, even if the bear isn’t causing any trouble.

“It’s always best to call CPW early if you are having any conflict with bears, but also even if you’re just having sightings, it’s really important for our biological data that we keep track of when folks are seeing bears where they’re seeing bears,” he said. 

It’s not likely that bee hives will attract bears in Telluride. Beekeeping is prohibited by the municipal code, Telluride Lead Code Enforcement and Animal Control Officer Jeanette Loven told the Daily Planet.

“While we all appreciate the necessity of bees in our environment, we also are sensitive to the bears, and human encounters,” Loven said. “Therefore, beehives are not permitted in the Town of Telluride just as bird feeders and bird seeds are not permitted to be placed in a manner that would attract bears during the months of April 15 to Nov. 15.”

Livingston said now is a good time to remind people to take down their winter bird feeders and secure their trash cans properly.

“Even though we have had some spring snow, we didn’t get a ton of low elevation snow this year,” he said. “We want to remind folks that bears are active right now and that when they come out of their dens, they are eating a lot of grasses, but bears can smell up to five miles away something tasty in our residential areas.”

Visit https://tinyurl.com/2024beartowngrants for more information about the 2024 Human-Bear Conflict Reduction grant.