Routt County Bear Incidents Spike 410% This Summer

Steamboat Springs —"Unprecedented." That was the word four different local officials used to describe this summer’s bear activity, a term that usually signals something outside the realm of normalcy. For Steamboat Springs Police Chief Mark Beckett, that word describes a shift in behavior he has never seen in his tenure. The numbers back up the sentiment, though they are stark and difficult to parse when you’re standing in your driveway at 2 a.m. listening for claws on the siding of your garage. According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife records, Routt County has logged 952 reported bear incidents through September 10, a nearly 410% increase compared to the 187 incidents reported during the same period last year.

The Steamboat Pilot reported on this surge, noting that the spike isn’t just about volume; it’s about aggression and proximity. Thirteen bears have been euthanized in the county so far this year, and nine have been relocated. In 2025, those numbers were zero. Two people have been attacked by bears in the county this year, up from none last year. Beckett told the newspaper that historically, police calls involve bears in dumpsters or simply "on scene." This year, he said the department is seeing bears in houses and structures at a rate ten times higher than usual. He pointed to the trash enclosures at the Ore House restaurant, where bears have climbed on top of the plastic lids and caved them in — a phenomenon he said his officers are seeing "all through town."

It’s a sensory shift for anyone living in the valley. The smell of pine and woodsmoke is still there, but it’s mixed with something else now. It’s the smell of wet fur and musk lingering on a fence post after dawn. Community Service Supervisor Krista Amatuzio explained that the enclosures we rely on are being tested by real bears, often seasoned animals from rescues who already know how to open the older models. If a bear can break it, they will. And this year, they are breaking them faster than we can replace the lids.

Why now? The Steamboat Pilot attributed the record-breaking rates to a perfect convergence of environmental stressors. A critically low snowpack last winter, a staggering wildfire season, a late-spring frost, and widespread drought have all pushed bears into human spaces. In CPW’s Northwest Region — which spans from Jackson and Grand counties down to Mesa County, the agency received 3,474 reports of bear activity as of August 31, a nearly 173% increase from the first eight months of 2025. On August 28, CPW released a statement co-signed by Keep Routt Wild and Keep Bears Wild, urging the public to stop feeding the bears, noting that the state is seeing its "highest levels of human-bear conflict" on record.

Keep Bears Wild – Steamboat Lead Educator Christy Bubenheim and Apex Twin Enviro Sales Representative Louis Magor joined Beckett and Amatuzio in using that same word: unprecedented. It’s a heavy word to carry when you’re trying to sleep, or when you’re locking your car doors for the third time because a shadow moved near the taillights. The bears aren’t just hungry; they are confident. They know where the food is, and they know that we’re not going to fight them off easily.

Beckett’s department received 146 bear calls in June, 182 in July, and 212 in August. Compare that to last year: 42 calls in June, 69 in July, and just 20 in August. The curve is steep, and it’s still climbing. As the leaves begin to turn and the air cools into that crisp, thin mountain chill, the bears will be moving. They’ll be looking for fat reserves before the snow comes down again. And they’ll be looking in our neighborhoods, because that’s where the food is easiest to find.

You can feel it in the quiet of the morning now. It’s not just the birdsong or the wind through the aspens. It’s the sudden, sharp silence that follows a rustle in the brush near your compost bin. The bears are here, and they aren’t leaving until we change how we share this valley with them.