Bear aware, year round
In a town of fewer than 300 people surrounded by public land, our trash is the main thing teaching bears to come into the neighborhood. What we do with our garbage and our food scraps decides how this story goes.
Bear Aware discussion in Rico
Join your neighbors for an evening about what actually keeps bears out of town: how bears use Rico, what they are finding in our bins, and the small habits that make the biggest difference on our street.
A bear that finds food in town keeps coming back
Rico sits in the middle of black bear country in the western San Juans. Bears move through our valley every year looking for calories, and an unsecured bin is the easiest meal in the drainage. Once a bear learns that lesson, it stops being shy, it starts working porches and garages, and the outcome is almost never good for the bear.
Fed bears lose
A bear that gets comfortable in town is the one that ends up relocated or destroyed. Keeping our trash boring is the most direct thing we can do to keep bears wild and alive.
One bin, whole block
Bears do not stop at property lines. A single open can teaches a bear to check every yard around it, so the effort only works when we do it together, all season long.
Living with wildlife
Being surrounded by wild country is part of why we live here. Sharing it well is a form of stewardship, the same reason we work on land access, energy, and waste in this town.
Best practices for trash in bear country
None of this is complicated. It is mostly about where the can lives between pickups, and how much food smell is in it.
Store it inside
Keep garbage in a garage, shed, or closed structure until the morning of pickup. A can sitting out overnight is an invitation.
Put it out in daylight
Roll the bin out the morning of collection, not the night before, and bring the empty can back in the same day.
Latch and lock
Use a bear-resistant can or a locking lid if you have one, and make sure the latch is actually engaged every single time.
Cut the smell
Rinse cans and containers, freeze meat scraps until trash day, and wash out the bin now and then. Bears follow their noses.
Clear the other attractants
Pet food, bird feeders, dirty grills, coolers, and truck beds full of groceries all count. So do fruit and freezers on the porch.
Tell someone
If a bear is working your block, let your neighbors know so cans get secured, and report activity to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The single biggest lever most households have is what goes in the can in the first place.
[ add CPW reporting phone number ]Take the food out of the trash
Food scraps are the part of household waste that actually smells like dinner. Pull the organics out of your garbage can and what is left is packaging, which is far less interesting to a bear walking down the alley at midnight.
That is one of the reasons RLC has been working on organics through our Recycling Pilot Program. Starting in July 2027, MoCo Compost, based in Dolores, will be serving the Town of Rico with curbside compost service. Less food in the bin means fewer reasons for a bear to test it.
If you have financial constraints, drop us a line and we will work with you to cover costs.
Scraps go into a sealed compost bucket instead of the kitchen garbage bag.
The bucket lives indoors, locked shut, so the smell never reaches the alley.
Your trash can gets drier and duller, and stops rewarding curious bears.
Those organics come back as compost instead of riding 30 miles to a landfill.
The MoCo Compost gamma seal bucket
MoCo Compost hands out sturdy 5 gallon buckets with a gamma seal lid: a screw-down ring that twists shut and seals tight. It holds a week of scraps without leaking or perfuming your kitchen, and it stands up to a lot more curiosity than a grocery bag.
One rule, no exceptions: keep the bucket locked and stored indoors. A sealed bucket left on the porch or in the truck bed is still a bear puzzle worth solving, and bears are very good at puzzles.
A sealed bucket is a smell barrier, not a bear-proof safe. Indoors is what makes it work.
Secure your can, then bring a neighbor
Bear aware is a neighborhood habit more than an individual one. Lock up tonight, come to the September discussion, and get your household on the compost list when service starts.