"A people problem, instead of a bear problem."
That's how Aspen's city wildlife coordinator, Lara Xaiz, wants residents to think about a summer Colorado Parks and Wildlife has already logged as unusual. Statewide bear reports are up 68 percent for the first seven months of 2026 compared to the same stretch last year, a jump the agency's senior terrestrial biologist, Brad Banulis, tied to extreme drought at a July 28 meeting of regional sportspersons in Grand Junction. "Bears are tough this year," he said. If you live on Red Mountain and walk the dog up Smuggler most mornings, you've probably already absorbed that headline secondhand from a neighbor or a news alert. What most people haven't absorbed is the part of the story that's actually specific to this hillside: the neighborhood's own trash compliance worked, and that success is precisely why the risk shifted somewhere your garage door and grill cover can't ignore. It's also why the animal most likely to stop you cold on Smuggler Mountain Road this month isn't a bear at all.
The Trash-Can Win Nobody's Talking About
Aspen and Pitkin County have required wildlife-resistant trash containers for years. The city's ordinance sets a narrow put-out window, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on pickup day only, with fines up to $1,000 for noncompliance. Pitkin County's own code outside city limits, Title 6, Section 6.44, mirrors that requirement. Red Mountain has a documented history in this exact fight. Back in 2010, a state wildlife officer specifically flagged homes on Red Mountain for using heavy plastic containers that looked bear-resistant on the label but failed in practice, with lids a bear could pry open six inches with barely any effort, as the Vail Daily reported at the time.
The neighborhood, like the rest of the valley, corrected that. When Aspen and Snowmass Village hired full-time wildlife coordinators in 2024, trash-container compliance jumped 69 percent and the share of trash actually breached by bears dropped 25 percent, according to reporting that used the two towns as a model for other Colorado communities still working on their own ordinances. That's a policy win with a number attached to it, not a talking point. Bears that used to find an easy meal in a driveway can are now finding a locked container far more often than not.
Where the Risk Went Instead
Here's the part of Xaiz's mid-summer update that matters more than the statewide 68 percent figure. As of July 8, 2026, Aspen had logged 130 bear-related trash intrusions for the year, well ahead of the 83 recorded by the same date in 2025. That's not evidence the containers stopped working. It's evidence the bears adjusted. Xaiz told the Aspen Daily News that bears are now "targeting BBQ grills, recycling, and open doors" instead of the cans people finally learned to secure.
The specifics back that up. The city has recorded one home entry, three garage entries, one car entry, and one hotel entry so far this year, and in every case the animal got in through an unlocked door or window, or a garage left open. If you own a home on Red Mountain that sits empty for stretches between visits, that's the number worth sitting with. The curbside container was never the real long-term vulnerability once everyone complied with it. The garage door left cracked for airflow, the grill wiped down instead of covered, and the car window left down an inch for the dog are what's left standing.
The stakes for getting this wrong are real. Statewide, trash caused about two-thirds of all reported bear conflicts in 2025, a year that set an all-time high for total reports. Of the 5,229 bear reports logged that year, 78 bears were euthanized and 52 relocated after conflicts escalated past the point of correction, according to state figures cited in coverage of a new enforcement bill. That's the outcome nobody wants for an animal that only wanted an easy calorie score, which is why Xaiz keeps pushing residents to report a sighting the first time, not the fifth.
The Animal Your Leash Law Was Actually Written For
Bears get the headlines. Moose get almost none, and on Red Mountain's own trail system, that's backward. As of early June, Aspen had logged 17 moose sightings for the summer, and the Aspen Chamber's own wildlife guidance names Smuggler Mountain Road specifically as moose territory where dogs need to stay leashed, because a moose reads an off-leash dog as a wolf, one of its only natural predators.
The correct response to a moose is close to the opposite of the correct response to a bear. Xaiz told the Aspen Times that if a moose is blocking the trail, the move is simple: "turn around and go back the way you came." Mother moose are especially unpredictable through calving season, and males get aggressive again during the fall rut, so this isn't a spring problem that's already behind Red Mountain this year.
| If you meet a bear | If you meet a moose |
|---|---|
| Make noise. Yell, clap, use an air horn. | Stay quiet and back away slowly. |
| Give it a clear path to leave. | Never assume it will move for you. |
| Keep your dog leashed so it doesn't trigger a chase. | Keep your dog leashed. Off-leash dogs read as wolves. |
| If it's after your trash, report it so the pattern gets corrected. | If it's blocking the trail, turn around and take a different route. |
What Changes on This Month's Walk
Two administrative details make this the right week to actually change a habit instead of just reading about one. Colorado's new attractant-enforcement law takes effect August 12, closing a gap that previously let officers cite only people who intentionally lured bears with food or trash. After that date, carelessly leaving attractants out can draw a citation statewide, not just under Aspen's existing ordinance. At the same time, drought conditions mean bears are heading into hyperphagia, the pre-hibernation feeding stretch when caloric needs can spike to 20,000 calories a day, right on the usual late-summer schedule.
None of that requires a renovation. It requires closing the garage door before the walk, cleaning the grill instead of covering it over spills, and calling the city's bear hotline at 970-920-BEAR even for a sighting that feels too minor to bother anyone. Xaiz has said directly that residents near Aspen have grown hesitant to report a bear in a house, car, or trash bin, worried the call puts the animal at risk. It doesn't. The earlier a pattern gets reported, the earlier it gets corrected, before it becomes the kind of repeat behavior that ends badly for the bear rather than the person.
If a neighbor's container still isn't holding up, the Roaring Fork Valley Bear Coalition, founded by Snowmass resident Daniela Kohl in 2019, retrofits older cans with heavy-duty straps at no cost, work it has carried out for years alongside Aspen Girl Scout Troop 15014 and Boy Scout Troop 201. It takes about fifteen minutes and keeps the whole street's compliance record intact, which matters more this year than most. A neighborhood-wide compliance rate does nothing to protect the block if one open garage on Red Mountain teaches a bear the address again.
Red Mountain earned its reputation as the version of Aspen where the trailhead is out your back door, and this summer's numbers are proof that the reputation is being kept up the unglamorous way, one locked garage and one leashed dog at a time. If you already live that reputation and want to talk about what's happening on the property side of Red Mountain, or you're weighing a move here and want someone who actually knows which stretch of Smuggler gets the morning shade, Team Hansen is a call away. Let's Connect — Request a Private Consultation or Property Tour.
