By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

Once again this morning — the third time in the last few days — my daughter helped me clean up what the bear left behind in our backyard. Since the last big fire this happens. The garbage bags this morning were from someone new. We have an idea who. Usually it’s obvious from financial documents, advertisements, etc.

We live in a nice neighborhood — the sort of place where practically everyone has a graduate degree — for what it’s worth. The sort of place where people should be thoughtful enough to live in peace with nature. The solution to a garbage eating bear is usually to call Game and Fish to have the animal relocated.

I have given up on this option having lived on the canyons of Los Alamos for decades now. There is always another hungry bear. There is always another neighbor who tosses large amounts of smelly garbage in an unsecured rollcart days before the truck comes — you really wish someone could come, set up a trap, and relocate them.

You can’t though. If you call police dispatch they connect you with Code Enforcement. Last autumn Code Enforcement photographed my garden so when I went downtown to discuss the matter with an officer, I mentioned a problem with the house next door running as an illegal air bnb. Guests from the air bnb often parked in front of my place and cut across the yard — a few feet from where a very large bear often slept. This was getting to be rather dangerous. I had already discussed the matter with four County Councilors who did not take the matter seriously. Code Enforcement did nothing. I never heard back from them.

We have been living through a pandemic for months now. A pandemic whose roots are in the animal kingdom. Thousands have died. Have we learned anything yet? Will we ever?