No end in sight for bear issues

In the 40 minutes that Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) spokesman Randy Hampton spent talking to Aspen police officers after Monday night’s bear attack, he said he heard at least eight more 911 calls about bears come over the officers’ walkie-talkies. That’s par for the course this August, it seems, as Aspen-area bears have broken into a host of homes, countless trash cans and Dumpsters, a television studio and even a fur shop. Despite massive public outreach efforts from the DOW and local law enforcement, as well as ordinances passed in 2007 mandating people bear-proof their trash, the problem persists. And Hampton says his agency is overwhelmed by Aspen. “We are at a point now where we don’t know if anything can be done to alleviate this on the human side,” he said Tuesday. “We are at the end of our rope.”...AspenDailyNews