Wildlife experts are hopeful an early monsoon will help vegetation and natural food sources this summer in the high country, thereby reducing the chances of bears wandering into populated areas in search of food.

Bear sightings so far this year have been on par with last year’s numbers heading into foraging season.

As of July 15, Bear Smart Durango reported 65 bear sightings in La Plata County. About 33% of those were reported by city residents, and about half could be traced back to human food attractants.

By comparison, Bear Smart Durango tracked 58 bear sightings as of July 15, 2021.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has reported 86 sightings so far this year in the county compared with 82 sightings this time last year.

“We’re getting typical reports that a bear got into beehives and stuff like that,” said Bryan Peterson, executive director of Bear Smart Durango. “I would say the majority of the reports from in town Durango are bears getting into trash cans.”

Peterson said the summer months can be tough for bears because they are between vegetation sources. Because berries and acorns do not start growing until late July and early August, that can lead to increased bear sightings during the early summer months.

CPW spokesman John Livingston said the forecast is hopeful this year’s foraging season will be plentiful.

“The monsoons in the last few weeks certainly help,” he said. “We’re not seeing any kind of massive die-off events where we’re thinking everything dried up too much.”

Livingston said bear conflicts have been down this summer, and the more recent bear activity is a result of drier conditions over the last two weeks. Recent incidents involved bears rummaging through trash because the acorns and berries have not fully come in yet.

“But so far, we’re still hopeful that we’re still going to get good berries and acorns up in the high country in the next month or so,” he said. “It is a good sign that we have fruit on trees; not all that’s ripened up yet.”

August through October are important feeding months for bears because they are preparing for hibernation. Livingston said during this time bears consume a lot of calories, and Durango could see increased bear sightings because the bruins are searching for food when the forage is not suitable.

Peterson said bear hibernation periods change as climate changes. If Durango continues to have warmer springs, it will shorten the bears’ hibernation period.

Livingston also said bear hibernation is dependent on the quality of snowpack.

“If you’ve got a good snowpack and you’re getting spring snow, those bears are going to stay hibernating,” Livingston said. “But if things are greening up sooner, and it’s getting warmer, they’ll come out of those dens a little bit earlier.”

CPW biologist Brad Weinmeister said some areas of the county have been plagued by drier weather than others. That can make the upcoming foraging season harder to assess.

The monsoon has provided enough moisture for bears to find food during their forage, but the question becomes how much?

In June, much of northern La Plata County received 3 to 4 inches of precipitation, according to the National Weather Service’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service.

Weinmeister said bears tend to stay in the high country during a natural forage, and if northern La Plata County continues to receive moisture, there will be fewer sightings and incidents in town.

The Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service indicates much of northern La Plata County has received 0.1 to 0.5 inches of rain over the past week.

Weinmeister doubts arid weather in the near future will have much impact on the berry and acorn forage.

“Those plants are producing, and we always have dry spells this time of year, sometimes weeks at a time,” he said. “Actually, with the moisture we got, we replenished that ground moisture quite a bit.”

Weinmeister said root system depth and development are factors when discussing the impact of dry spells on food sources. If not enough water seeps into the ground, it could harm growth.

CPW encourages residents to report bear sightings early and often.

“If we can get a call about a bear early, before it starts becoming a habitual offender, we can go out to a person’s property or neighborhood and give advice on how to remove some of those attractants,” Livingston said.

CPW tries to prevent incidents where it must trap bears and relocate them. Livingston said best practices are cleaning barbecue grills, keeping trash off the curb until morning and taking down hummingbird feeders.

tbrown@durangoherald.com