Study unravels appetite of black bears

ASPEN – Do bears get addicted to garbage? One common belief went that once you allow bears to get a taste of human food, there is no way they will go back to eating berries, nuts and other victuals from the backcountry.

But a new study of bears in the Aspen area led by a doctoral candidate from Colorado State University finds this thinking has been all wrong. Sharon Baruch-Mordo, after several years of study, finds that bears will seek human sources only when nature’s bounty turns thin, as in drought years.

In a presentation covered by theAspen Times, Baruch-Mordo used the example of one bear, who has been tracked since 2005. In years when nature supplied abundant berries and other food, the bear got no closer to Aspen than its periphery. When natural food supplies were poor, she was “all over town,” Baruch-Mordon said.

Baruch-Mordo’s team concluded that the key to reducing conflicts between bears and humans is to ensure that garbage remains secured at all times, particularly when natural crops fail.

To prevent pillaging, a garbage can must be well made and employ sturdy materials – something that Colorado wildlife officials say isn’t always the case, even with so-called bear-resistant containers. They say some containers provided by trash haulers have lids that even a human can break into.

Light-trespass ban extended in Idaho

KETCHUM, Idaho – Some years after the towns of Ketchum, Sun Valley and Hailey adopted a law restricting light pollution and trespass, the Blaine County commissioners have done the same for their more rural precincts. The new law prohibits new outdoor lighting fixtures from sending light directly onto adjacent property or public right-of-ways.”

For longtime activist Steve Pauley, a resident of Sun Valley, that’s still not enough. He wants the law applied retroactively to existing lighting fixtures on houses and businesses. He cites it as both a quality-of-life and a health issue. He cited new evidence that has linked night-time lighting to harmful effects on human health.

Even if Pauley considers the regulation too tame, others in the Sun Valley area resent it.

“We are getting pretty tired of others telling us what to do,” groused one blogger on theIdaho Mountain Express website.

But another blogger said that the accretion of many small lights has already sullied the quality of life.

“I am neither an astronomy geek nor a liberal, but I do like to be able to look up and see the stars,” he wrote. “When I moved here, one could see all seven stars in Pleiades glittering in their glory. Now one can see a grouping of an indeterminate amount of stars. We are losing something of value.”

Big box defenders taking a stand

CANMORE, Alberta – Canmore continues to debate whether it wants additional big-box retailers in its midst. Those opposing argue that such retailers represent homogenization and will defile Canmore’s relative individuality, what some might call its small-town quaintness. They point to such mass-market offerings in metropolitan Calgary, less than an hour away.

Balderdash, say supporters. They argue that Canmore’s existing stores lack items needed for everyday living. And what items the stores do have carry inflated prices.

“Maybe we should just toddle up town and buy a $300 jacket or a pair of shoes for $200,” one letter in theRocky Mountain Outlook sarcastically said. Said another more straight-forwardly: “Our so-called designer shops don’t carry anything practical.”

Taking stock of Canmore more broadly, letter-writer Grant Robinson pooh-poohed Canmore’s supposed distinctiveness. “We aren’t more unique than any other busy mountain resort town in North America,” he writes.

“If we do carry a uniqueness, we may have more people that (good or bad) want to save the world, thinking their NIMBY attitudes are a good start. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind helping you save the world. Just let me go buy a pair of steel-toed work boots before we get started.”

Runoff peaks in Vail and Eagle Valley

VAIL – Spring runoff hasn’t roared quite so loudly in the Vail area since at least 1994 and possibly not since 1983. Unusually hot weather in late May and early June this year has eviscerated the lingering snowpack, causing Gore Creek to pound through Vail.  One bike and pedestrian path was destroyed and water was crowding homes and businesses, causing an undetermined amount of damage.

Where Gore Creek flows into the Eagle River, just west of V ail, one rafter from Aspen died after being thrown into the trashing waters. On Sunday, organizers of the Teva Mountain Games called off the whitewater competition, saying the dangers were just too high even for experienced and adventuresome kayakers.

Darryl Bangert, long-experienced in the local waters, advised fellow boaters and kayakers to thoroughly evaluate risks. With water levels eight feet higher, the rules change, he told theVail Daily. “Eight feet is unbelievably fun, but there are unbelievable penalty points.”

In Vail itself, stream gauges showed 2,270 cubic feet per second. The other high marks for spring runoff in the last decade were 1,890 cfs and 1,625 cfs.

Economy picks up steam in Jackson

JACKSON, Wyo. – Economic indicators suggest a quickening pulse in Jackson Hole this summer. Airline bookings have increased 10 percent compared to last summer, likely producing an additional 18,000 people who will be making dining reservations at the cloth-napkin restaurants and buying the usual trinkets. Auto traffic more broadly in the Rocky Mountains has been projected to increase also.

Real estate will be a mixed bag. Sales volume will likely increase anywhere from 20 to 50 percent, one long-experienced industry insider told theJackson Hole News&Guide.

Development, however, will continue to lag. There’s not much in the pipeline, and one local architect points an accusatory finger at local planning bodies that review building plans.

But the newspaper also tells of foreclosure proceedings filed against a multimillion dollar parcel at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Two years ago, local authorities had granted approval to build an 182,000-square-foot hotel using the name The Little Nell, making it an offshoot of the hotel bearing the same name in Aspen. The developer, Rob DesLauriers, told the newspapers that the project was put on hold 18 months ago when construction financing was not available. With that, he said, the name Little Nell expired. DesLauriers said he hopes to find a lender willing to rewrite the loan or a buyer for the property.

Telluride likely to tax plastic bags

TELLURIDE – Telluride and the adjoining town of Mountain Village appear ready to assess a tax on use of plastic shopping bags.The Telluride Watch reports unanimous support in a recent working session of the Town Council.

Helping steel the determination was the showing of a movie called “Bag It” at the recent Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. The documentary presents a compelling argument for the need to rein in the rampant use of plastic.

The easiest target about such concerns has been the plastic bags liberally used in grocery and other stores. The nation of Ireland famously imposed a 15-cent tax on plastic bags in 2002, cutting use by 90 percent. Various U.S. cities – Seattle, San Francisco and Washington D.C. – have also taken action, with varying success.

Because of its tourist trade, Telluride believes that an outright ban on plastic bags would prove unworkable. Instead, activists and town leaders think a tax on single-use plastic bags handed out at grocery stores will be most effective.

Activist David Allen, who began lobbying for a disincentive three years ago, warns that Telluride may be lobbied by national trade groups. In Seattle, he said, opponents spent $1 million in helping persuade voters to overturn the 20 cent fee on paper and plastic bags that the city had enacted.

– Allen Best


 

 

In this week's issue...

January 25, 2024
Bagging it

State plastic bag ban is in full effect, but enforcement varies

January 26, 2024
Paper chase

The Sneer is back – and no we’re not talking about Billy Idol’s comeback tour.

January 11, 2024
High and dry

New state climate report projects continued warming, declining streamflows