Avon Police Log 118 Bear Calls as Drought Forces Animals Into Homes

Aspen —118 calls. That is the number of bear-related incidents logged by the Avon Police Department so far this year. For context, the entire department handled approximately 86 calls from January through December of last year. The pace has more than doubled in under a decade’s worth of data, compressed into a single season.

The drought is the driver. High-elevation food sources have dried up, forcing hungry animals to descend into the valley floor where people live. They are looking for calories before winter hits, and they are finding them in our neighborhoods.

Coby Cosper, the Avon Police Deputy Chief, put it plainly on Monday: “I would say that every day, or every other day, we receive some kind of bear-related call.”

He added a crucial distinction that residents need to hear. “But in Avon, we have not had a single report of an interaction between a bear and a person this season, in which a bear has had contact with a person.”

That distinction matters. In the Eagle-Vail area, it is not universal. On August 8, a man in Eagle Vail was mauled on the arm by a bear and required medical attention. Across the county, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office logged 290 bear-related calls between July 1 and August 18. Colorado Parks and Wildlife received 81 reports during that same window, with 47 of those involving property damage.

In Avon, the threat is less about blood and more about intrusion. Cosper noted that bears have entered homes three times this year, creating high-stress situations for residents. The police response has shifted to a specific tool: bean bags.

“We have used these projectiles several times this year,” Cosper said. “They don’t make as much noise as regular shots, but technically you are firing a shotgun.”

The tactic involves opening a door and firing the bean bag at the bear’s rear to drive it out of kitchens or mobile home areas. It is a non-lethal deterrent that works because it startles without the concussive force of a standard bullet.

Cosper confirmed that no Avon officer has ever had to use a conventional firearm in a conflict with a bear. “That would be a mandatory notification for me, so I would know even if I wasn’t working at that time,” he said. “We have not used lethal weapons to shoot the bears here in Avon.”

Let’s do the math on the local impact. When a bear enters a home, it is not just a nuisance; it is a sanitation and safety event. The police are currently managing these intrusions with bean bags, but the volume of calls suggests a trend that is outpacing last year’s total. The animals are hungry, they are in the valley, and they are entering structures.

The practical reality for locals is that while Avon has avoided human injury this season, the proximity of these animals to daily life is increasing. The police are keeping them out with non-lethal force, but the frequency of encounters is rising sharply. The drought is not a temporary blip; it is reshaping where wildlife looks for food, and that means more calls, more bean bags, and more bears in the valley floor.