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Through the West Trail Study Area Plan, Open Space and Mountain Parks department (OSMP) and the Open Space board of Trustees (OSBT) are in the process of developing recommendations for the OSMP lands that comprise the mountain backdrop west of Boulder. Under consideration is the possibility of allowing mountain bike access in the Anemone Mountain area west of the Red Rocks and Settlers Park. The Open Space Board requested that OSMP staff provide them additional information and analysis about allowing mountains bikes on a loop trail proposed for the south side of the Anemone.

To learn more about this issue follow this link to the OSMP West TSA web page. Information on the Anemone Loop trail is in the West TSA Draft Plan available on the website.

You can offer comment on this item to the OSBT and staff by clicking on the “Get Involved” link on the above web page, or by calling Dean Paschall, OSMP Communication and Public Process Manager, at 720-564-2050.

OSMP releases their final draft plan on February 18, so for your comments to be included in the plan OSMP needs that input before February 16. OSBT will take comments until their scheduled OSBT meeting on February 23 at the City Council chambers when they will consider this issue, receive final public comment, and make a recommendation to OSMP staff.

From 1947 to 1967 Boulder experienced unprecedented growth, and the city’s population boomed from 18,000 to 60,000 people. The post-World War II years saw the completion of the Boulder Turnpike, the opening of Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant and the arrival of businesses like Beech Aircraft and Ball Aerospace.

With the influx of thousands of new residents, Boulder experienced an extreme housing shortage. In response to this shortage, many new neighborhoods, including Martin Acres and Table Mesa, were constructed. Today, Boulder’s post-war neighborhoods account for thirty percent of the city’s housing stock.

The period also witnessed a rising tide of concern amongst Boulder citizens about the city’s rapid growth, which resulted in the community embracing the Blue Line and a greenbelt of open space delineating Boulder’s urban boundary.

This period of explosive growth and change is documented in a short video put together by the city’s Planning Department. The video has great historic images along with an informative narrative.

The sow’s 75lb cub on its way to a new home. Photo courtesy CDOW.

Working with wildlife in urban settings is always a challenge.  Unlike television depictions of resource management, real world wildlife management involves on the spot decision-making, influenced by variables and exigencies provided by location, nature and people.  In working with wildlife one should always expect the unexpected.  In most cases the outcome is good for the animal as well as the public safety that we are charged with protecting.  However, despite our best hopes and aspirations for positive results, occasionally difficult choices must be made and unavoidable circumstances dictate grim outcomes.  This was, in part, the case recently with the sow bear and cub that had been frequenting the Newlands neighborhood in Boulder.

For Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) officers, Boulder Rangers, Boulder Police officers and Bear Aware Volunteers, working with bears is an almost daily occurrence in Boulder during the summer.  We field dozens of calls, keeping track of specific bears frequenting particular neighborhoods, “sitting” with bears while they are up trees or moving through town, providing information to residents on how to minimize attracting bears to homes or neighborhoods, softly encouraging bears to move back to open lands, or hazing bears with beanbags, rubber buckshot, whistles, horns, or pepper spray to hopefully move them out of town.  When absolutely necessary we set humane traps or tranquilize bears that we then try to move to safer habitat.  Unfortunately, with development in Colorado we have fewer and fewer places to move bears to.  And when public safety absolutely dictates it, we kill bears.  As wildlife officers that is an absolutely horrendous decision to have to make, but sometimes there is no other reasonable option.  For officers and volunteers working on bears in town it is totally disheartening to know that by the time we are notified of a problem the bear has become habituated to town by unsecured trash and other attractants that draw bears allowing them to become comfortable being near human habitations.  Through carelessness or intentional acts, humans may be complicit in altering a bear’s behavior in a way that may ultimately lead to that bear’s death.

In the case of the Newlands sow and cub, officers had been aware that these bears were spending the day on Sanitas Open Space and raiding garbage in alleys at night.  They had been softly pushed out of the neighborhood.  They had been hazed with rubber buckshot.  Officers had spoken with neighbors about garbage left out.  Officers had spoken with neighbors planting new fruit trees that will be a future attractant for wildlife into town.  Bear Aware Volunteers went door to door in some of the neighborhoods to provide information on reducing bear attractants.

On September 1^st police and DOW officers received word that the sow and cub were up a tree about two blocks from open space.  Wildlife officers, police and Boulder Rangers all responded promptly and set up a perimeter to minimize disturbance to the bear.  We began to discuss the proper course of action for the bears and public safety when we noticed that the sow had a wound to her muzzle.  Using binoculars and spotting scope it was determined that the adult sow had an absolutely horrific and ghastly wound.  Her entire lower jaw and about ¾ of her tongue had been ripped away and were gone.  All officers on scene verified the extent and seriousness of her wounds.  In discussion by telephone with a Division of Wildlife Veterinarian we all concurred that the wound was not repairable, was debilitating and ultimately would lead to the decline and death of the sow through infection and/or starvation.  Reasonably, we considered that if left on its own to decline the bear was likely to remain in town and, being injured, starved and desperate, could become dangerous to humans. Consequently, the supervising wildlife officer on scene made the lamentable but unavoidable decision to tranquilize and then kill the sow bear, and attempt to capture the cub.  When safely handling sow and cubs it is essential to first tranquilize the sow, and this was done.  The cub was healthy, robust and wary.  While DOW policy recommends not taking bear cubs to rehab after August 15, officers on scene wanted to capture the young bear to make certain it was healthy and, if needed, take it to a licensed wildlife rehabber.  Not wanting to risk injury to the cub, officers patiently waited to tranquilize it when it came down out of the tree, and it was hit with a dart.  With unexpected vigor the cub bear charged away.  Officers pursued and searched extensively through the neighborhood for the cub, but it gave us the slip.  Dense vegetation, fences, and topography put the cub at the advantage that day.  Fortunately there were several great pictures taken of the cub in the tree showing distinctive markings on its muzzle.

For seventeen days the cub was on its own, successfully eluding efforts to capture it.  With abundant food and dense cover the cub was able to thrive.  During this time, humane traps were set, and officers responded to reports of the cub in yards and on open space.  Finally, with the help of one very dedicated Newlands resident, who continued to set, monitor, and maintain a DOW trap on her property, the cub was captured.  A spot was reserved with a licensed rehabber on the west slope and preliminary arrangements were made for transport.  Licensed wildlife rehabbers will only take injured or orphaned wildlife when necessary to increase the animal’s chance of long-term survival.  When the cub was tranquilized and removed from the trap it was found to be a 75 pound female.  It is not recommended to take late summer cubs over fifty pounds for rehab, as they are generally ready to eke out a living on their own.  By telephone the licensed rehabber and a DOW veterinarian both recommended that the young bear would have a better chance of survival with direct relocation rather than placement in a rehab facility.  Since the cub was highly habituated to the Newlands neighborhood and would likely eventually wind up as a problem bear, the decision was made to find a more remote location in quality bear habitat.  The next morning the bear was transported and released on the west slope of Colorado away from town.  Our hope is that she adjusts well to her new home and finds a secure winter den site when the snow flies.  This is what young bears do.

As wildlife managers we are tasked with often difficult decisions, especially in urban areas.  We are asked to strike the careful balance between advocating for the needs of wildlife and protecting human safety.  We are expected to right wrongs over which there is little control. We are placed in situations with options and outcomes but no clear answers.  There are moments when we triumph, when experience predicting wildlife behavior, or sometimes good fortune, results in positive outcomes.  There are also moments when we deeply struggle with no win situations with depressing ends.  When that happens the evening trip home is long, filled with thoughts about what could have been done differently, and in the end sometimes there was no better solution.

While many of the ultimate decisions are ours, prevention of such tragic situations is the responsibility of everyone.  Members of the community may not agree with our decisions but they have the power to keep us from having to make them in the first place.  The solution lies in responsible trash containment and removal of other attractants.  If anything is to be gained from this ordeal let it be that we all think of this bear as we work and live in Boulder and use that thought of her to motivate us to help other bears in the future.

Male yearling bear that had been frequenting garbage cans in the Table Mesa and Baseline areas of west Boulder. This bear was eventually tranquillized in Louisville and relocated to Park County. He now has a set of green ear tags.

One of the commandments of living in bear country was being violated…by everyone.  Keep your garbage secured until the day of pick up. I work as a District Wildlife Manager for the Division of Wildlife and my district is north Boulder.  I started in this district in January of 2009.  Due to a combination of naiveté and limited bear incidents in the city last year, not only did I not realize this is how much of west Boulder handles their garbage, but I found it more surprising than many of the people around me.  The more I talk to residents, other officers, and city personnel, the more I understand why this is and the more I feel it is necessary to change the way west Boulder handles their garbage.

There is wildlife everywhere in Boulder.  Bears, like our other opportunistic urban wildlife species, will go wherever they can and eat what they can find.  Food scraps in garbage and compost bins provide an easy and abundant source of calories for bears, though not a healthy one.  A five minute walk to Mountain Parks and Open Space property for west Boulder residents is also a five minute walk for the wildlife to come into the city, including bears.

The problem with garbage is not the result of a public that doesn’t care.  Boulder is full of people who are concerned about wildlife and demonstrate daily their willingness to go out of their way to benefit wildlife.  There are a few reasons why most west Boulder residents handle their garbage the way they do.  One big one is that many residents simply do not have an acceptable place to store their garbage throughout the week (no shed or garage).  There are bear-proof garbage cans available, but many residents either cannot afford or are unwilling to take on the additional cost.   Some residents painstakingly store any food-type garbage in their house until pick up day, and I have no doubt that helps.  I do, however, doubt that this is something everyone is willing to do.

There are also a few reasons why this problem hasn’t been addressed already.  For one thing,  even if all of the garbage was locked down tomorrow,  there would still be attractants drawing bears into the city in the form of bird feeders, back yard fountains and pools, ripe fruit on the trees, and hobby bee hives.  Is it really reasonable to ask residents to pay for a bear-proof garbage container when the bears will come into town anyway because of bird feeders?  I recognize there are other attractants adding to this problem, but I see the garbage as the largest issue and one solution which would have the most impact.  Another reason this problem has yet to be solved is just a result of our busy lives and the many issues our communities face: we are reactionary, and if we don’t see the problem for ourselves we often fail to give it the priority it deserves.

I can look at this issue and state that garbage is a priority because throughout the summer and fall I spend a lot of time with bears.  I spend so much time laughing at bears, crying for bears, talking about bears, and educating on bears, that it is easy for me to make the connection between bears and garbage and dead bears.  When the Division of Wildlife relocates a bear from the city, the bear gets an ear tag.  If the bear is in a position where we feel we need to relocate it again, following strict state-wide policy, that bear is put down.  I truly feel we can prevent that bear from coming into town in the first place if we can convince it that people and the city have nothing, no garbage, to offer.

Since this issue is widespread, it is going to take a solution that is both reasonable and practical.  I think no one can determine what solution is best other than the residents this issue affects.  I encourage everyone to not only share feedback with me in the upcoming months but to also become involved in the city’s efforts by participating in the creation of the Urban Wildlife Management Plan.  Information on the plan can be found at www.boulderwildlifeplan.net.  We can and should generate a remedy for the problem of unsecured garbage, and if we do we take a crucial step toward making Boulder a more bear-friendly city.

It’s not easy being a City of Boulder Open Space planner. The planning professionals hosted the community Tuesday night, Feb. 9, at Foothill Elementary School on Hawthorne Ave. to discuss a local institution called the Goat Trail.

via The Great Goat Trail Debate | Boulder Reporter.