Colorado foothills communities prepare for bear sightings uptick ahead of hibernation season

On the main stretch of Evergreen -- State Highway 74 through downtown -- Little Bear Saloon has been a community institution for a long time. Patrick Robson has owned the bar for a couple years, and he's come to quickly understand how appropriate his business' name really is. 

"(The bears) love this dumpster," Robson joked with CBS Colorado. "We finally got a locking system on there. They take their trash up there and have a picnic." 

While bear sightings are fairly common in Evergreen, they are typically seen in residential neighborhoods and in people's homes. When they make their way down toward town, they're on the hunt for some food. As they've become more accustomed to humans, business owners such as Robson and Brian Peluso, general manager of Muddy Buck Coffee House, are always on their toes. Both businesses share the same dumpster on location. 

"They learn from us," Peluso said. "(The bears) get smarter than us and throw it all over the place," he added with a chuckle. 

The business owners had to put padlocks on their dumpster after the bears seemingly figured out the two-step process to open it without locks. Other businesses in town have moved to dumpsters with sliding doors or ones with much heavier lids to discourage bears from trying to find what they're looking for. 

Peluso, who moved into Evergreen a few years ago, remembered when his neighbor first told him about why it's a bad idea to leave garbage out the night before pickup.

"Everybody who lives in Evergreen learns the lesson the hard way at one point or another," Peluso explained. 

During the fall months, the black bears of Colorado are typically looking for food to prepare for torpor, or hibernation. According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, nearly half of the annual bear sightings come in the months of August, September and October. This comes after an above-average number of bear sightings and conflicts in 2024, CPW reported.

"Anything that smells like food to bears, bears will come and try to find," explained Kara Van Hoose, a CPW public information officer. 

The prescriptions seem simple but important: Locking your windows and doors to your home and to your cars before going to sleep; using different types of dumpsters for business; removing bird feeders and securing your trash cans. 

Bears typically consume 20,000 calories per day to prepare for the winter months. CPW compared it to 20 chicken sandwiches, 10 large fry orders, 10 sodas and 10 milkshakes -- all in a day. 

"If you get in between them and their food or their cubs, then, yeah, they'll become aggressive," Van Hoose added. 

But, even with the increased amount of bear sightings in 2024 and a potentially busy season ahead, Patrick and Brian aren't that fazed or worried. 

"We welcome them," Patrick said. "They were here before we were."