Steamboat Wildlife Manager Warns Halloween Pumpkins Attract Bears

Glenwood Springs —"Often, we see bird feeders bring bears into people’s yards and onto porches," said Kris Middledorf, Parks and Wildlife’s area wildlife manager in Steamboat Springs. "We then see escalating conflicts with bears that have gotten close to homes, then trying to or successfully gaining access to homes. It is the same story with pumpkins people put out every October."

Middledorf isn’t talking about a minor nuisance. He’s describing the exact mechanism that turns a decorative gourd into a liability for your health insurance and your porch.

Let’s do the math on what we’re dealing with this autumn. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that producers across the country grew 1.47 billion pounds of pumpkins in 2025. That is a staggering amount of orange biomass, much of it destined for jack-o’-lanterns and holiday displays. But the story doesn’t end when you carve them. It ends when they rot, and right now, that rotting process is happening in a climate that makes it dangerous.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife issued a warning ahead of Halloween: leaving out pumpkins for wildlife is not just bad manners; it’s often illegal. In Colorado, feeding wildlife and knowingly luring bears are both prohibited by law. The agency notes that during the fall, bears pack on calories — up to 20,000 a day — before denning for the winter. In a year where drought and freeze events eliminated much of their natural forage, bear activity has already skyrocketed. Add a free meal on your front lawn, and you have created a habituated bear. A habituated bear is a problem that rarely solves itself quietly.

The threat isn’t limited to bears. Middledorf noted that attracting deer and elk with pumpkins can bring in predators like mountain lions. It also brings aggressive mothers defending their young closer to your driveway, increasing the likelihood of conflict with dogs and cars. It increases the spread of disease between livestock, humans, and wildlife. On paper, a pumpkin is a seasonal decoration. In practice, it’s a beacon for every hungry thing with teeth in the valley.

So what do you do with 1.47 billion pounds of gourd? The bad news is that it’s estimated well over 80% of pumpkins purchased end up in landfills. As food waste, they produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide. You’re burying your holiday tradition in a greenhouse gas emitter.

The good news is that disposal doesn’t have to be binary: landfill or bear bait. Parks and Wildlife recommends bringing pumpkins in overnight throughout the season to prevent nocturnal scavenging. After the holidays, speedy and safe disposal is key. If your jack-o’-lantern is free of candles, lights, wax, glitter, paint, or other decorations, it can go to a compost facility. Many communities offer pumpkin-specific composting, and local ranchers or farmers often use them to feed domestic livestock or create their own compost.

The practical bottom line for folks around here is simple: check your decorations before you dump them. If it has glitter, it doesn’t belong in the compost bin or on a rancher’s fence. If you leave it out overnight, you’re gambling with your property and your safety against a bear that’s eating 20,000 calories a day. The cost of a broken porch railing or a vet bill for a dog that got too close to an elk is far higher than the cost of hauling your pumpkin to a compost facility. Keep it inside at night, check for non-organic additives, and get it out of the yard.