By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Los Alamos County has unwanted guests and is now debating how best to get them to leave.
The County Council wrestled with this question during its work session Tuesday night. The guests are bears and the issue is how to discourage them from visiting residences to dine on the all-they-can-eat buffets found in trash cans and encourage them to return to their natural habitat.
After a lengthy discussion, Council recommended staff further investigate changing out the existing roll carts to bear-proof carts that have a gravity unlocking feature, which makes it impossible for bears to pry open but can be open with the County’s trash trucks.
Council also will consider potentially revising the chapter in the County code that addresses waste management. The suggested change is to require bear proof carts if residents cannot secure their cart in a garage or another structure. Additionally, the code could require limiting when carts are placed curbside.
If existing roll carts are phased out for the bear proof carts, there will be additional expenses to consider, Public Works Director Anne Laurent said. She reported that the 96-gallon gravity unlocking carts are estimated to be $232 each and the 64-gallon carts cost $218 each. Unless this is subsidized, council would need to approve a $6-8 monthly fee that would be charged to residents.
There also is a cost of time. During her presentation Laurent said that the preferred gravity-unlocking carts are not yet mass manufactured. The County would need to wait eight months to receive them and that is after the order is placed and the carts are manufactured.
Laurent suggested changing out the carts over a three-year period and to start with areas that experience high bear activity, which includes the Western area, Quemazon, Walnut Street, Barranca Mesa and North Mesa.
The carts also would be available by individual customer request.
Council discussed other options such as outreach and education, procuring ratchet straps and pins for existing carts and distributing citations to residents who violate the code such as with overflowing trash cans, but Councilor James Robinson emphasized the key is to get those bear proof roll carts.
“I am fully in favor of doing as many choices as we can but also having a community-wide option for people who are limited like myself (who don’t have a garage). I realize it does come with a cost; however, the cost in my mind, if we look at how many hours it takes to patrol our neighborhoods for these rambling bears, it is only going to get more expensive and more dangerous as more bears learn that our roll carts are easy prey,” Robinson said. “I think we can look at all options … but I do think there has to be an enforcement mechanism for those who might just decide that they don’t want to participate … I think we can take an all above approach, but I think the key cornerstone to this needs to be the introduction of these roll carts.”
There are numerous ways residents can dissuade bears from digging in their garbage cans, New Mexico Game and Fish Sgt. Benjamin Otero said.
Picking up fallen fruit, taking down bird feeders at night, securing trash lids, spraying roll carts with ammonia and feeding pets inside.
He added that Game and Fish officials have been busy in Los Alamos this summer. Game and Fish has directly received close to 300 calls regarding bears in the area, Otero said.
They have relocated 10, hazed 20 and moved two to the wildlife refuge in Espanola.
Otero said residents are being responsible.
“Most people are doing pretty well … making the community safer and better by putting things away,” he said.
Robinson drove home the point that this issue cannot be ignored – for all parties’ sakes. A fed bear, he said, is a dangerous bear and a dangerous bear is a dead bear.
“We need to do our part to keep them safe,” Robinson said.
