Last fall a mother bear and her two cubs one a distinct light brown with an impish smile turned in for the winter by building a den along the Rio Grande Trail, downvalley of the Cemetery Lane trailhead. Warmer temperatures and longer days have woken the family back up, and theyve started to make trips out of the den to forage the hillside for food.

A sign placed on the Rio Grande Trail earlier this month warned trail users that bears are active in the area, after a bear den was discovered nearby.

Ive been lucky enough to see bears wake up and come out of dens before, and they definitely look like youd expect if you had just mostly been lethargic or sleeping for months, said Pryce Hadley, the ranger supervisor for Pitkin County Open Space and Trails.

Ive seen them crawl out and lay in the mouth of the den for a while. But they are also out and about and ready to eat.

For a time, Hadley placed signs along the trail letting recreationalists know they were in the company of the bears home. While it is a typical time of year for the bears to be emerging, the events of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought an atypical amount of humans to the local trails

Our trails traffic significantly increased as soon as the ski resorts closed; it roughly doubled, Hadley said. Weve not had a shortage of work, and honestly its been more like June, July levels.

Locals, many of whom are now out of work or working from home, have taken to the areas extensive trail system. Typically, the week after the mountains close the local population drops dramatically as the seasonal workforce takes the offseason to travel. But, with travel restrictions in place to tamp down on the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, locals are forced to vacation in Aspen.

Its a good reminder of how many of us locals there are, and obviously we all love being outdoors, Hadley said. I couldnt think of a better place to be under house arrest than the Roaring Fork Valley.

The timing of the pandemic has meant humans are flocking to wilderness areas during a critical period for wildlife.

Its a reminder of how important it is to protect these open spaces. Obviously we are doing that under pretty adverse circumstances right now, but I appreciate and am thankful that so many people in this community hold space and value for the natural environment even when dealing with an unprecedented crisis, Hadley said.

A herd of elk gather near McLain Flats Road. Locals are taking to outdoor trails in record numbers for April during Pitkin Countys stay-at-home order, at a time when wildlife are coming out of winter hibernation, migrating and beginning calving season.

Officials are reminding the public that both on the trails and at home, residents need to reset their habits to be bear aware.

Rachel Beck has been a community response officer for the Aspen Police Department since the fall. She came into the position at the height of a particularly bad year for bruin encounters within the city. APD launched a targeted bear aware campaign, and cited numerous downtown restaurants for improperly securing their trash. Now that the animals have emerged from slumber, the effects of the human behavior still remain.

My first [bear] call of the new season, it went right back to that same dumpster. These bears have a really good memory, and thats really unfortunate for them because they are not learning to use their natural habitat. They are learning that its easier to come in and get trash that is unlocked, Beck said.

The easiest resource for sustenance is human trash, especially in the early spring before bears natural diet of berries, fruits and nuts have bloomed.

Its really sad because they become habitualized. Theyre very smart. When they learn to come in and get trash from residences, they go back and it is a positive reinforcement unfortunately, she said.

And while there is more foot traffic in the wild this spring, the stay-at-home orders that led to the closing of the majority of Aspens restaurants have resulted in a different meal plan for downtown bears.

COVID is adding to it in beneficial ways and not so beneficial ways. Theres less trash in the core because the restaurants are shut down, Beck said. I am optimistic that might help the problem, but it is sad for the local restaurants.

She said the police force wants to issue as few citations as possible on a local population that is already taking a hit, but with several reports already this year of bears getting into trash receptacles, tickets and fines will continue to be issued.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is going one step further with bear encounters this year. Last week, Kurtis Tesch, the district wildlife manager for the Aspen district told the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners that his team will be more aggressive this season in order to try and limit bear conflicts locally.

Essentially weve come to the consultation that the way weve been managing bear conflict in the past hasnt worked the way we wanted it to, Tesch said.

A bear summit that was set to bring together CPW with local government jurisdictions and law enforcement has been canceled this spring due to COVID-19 concerns. Nevertheless, CPW is moving forward with the new response tactic, which includes faster response times and a required relocation or euthanization of a bear based on its offensives.

We are going to be more proactive rather than reactive, Tesch said.

He said the departments past system of a more passive public information campaign was not resulting in enough compliance to keep the community safe.

We tried to put a lot of onus on the homeowner to manage their trash, lock their windows, lock their doors, stuff like that, Tesch said. There are lot of people being affected that are doing it right. If you are locking up everything correctly but your neighbor is not, there is still potential for your home to be broken in to.

CPW has already put down a bear that broke into homes in Snowmass Village upon emerging from hibernation earlier this month.

A new master plan for regulating mountain lions is also being developed this spring. The public can view the West Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan and add feedback through April 30.

Other area wildlife are also creeping to life and are being spotted in designated seasonal closure areas. Humans and off-leash dogs are not allowed in Sky Mountain Park until May 16 and sections of the Brush Creek and Rio Grande trails are also under seasonal closures as ungulates use the areas for migration and calving.

Pitkin County Open Space and Trails visitor outreach director Paul Holsinger delivers a fresh supply of leashes at the Wilton Jaffee trailhead near Woody Creek on a recent afternoon, where policy was recently changed to require all dogs to be leashed.

Its a really critical time, Hadley said. I know its really tempting to try and get out on the mountain bikes and get out on some to the trails that are subject to seasonal closures, but those closures are in effect for good reason.

Many seasonal closures end May 15, which will allow for more social distancing opportunities for the areas recreationalists, as well as a break for wildlife.

Trails in Sky Mountain Park remain closed until May 15, as the area is critical elk calving habitat the needs to be free from human disturbance at this time.

When we are out there we need to always have situational awareness and be aware of our surrounding whether we are watching out for cyclists or bears or moose. Thats even more important now with COVID-19, Hadley said. We want to have that safe and positive and healthy refuge out there for ourselves, the respite from being trapped indoors, but we want to make sure we are being respectful of peoples space.

And while the pandemic has upended the lives of local residents and thrown off the local economy, the natural world still has its standard spring awakening to go through.

COVID, pandemic, everything is fairly irrelevant [to wildlife]. They are just continuing to exist as they have for tens of thousands of years, and we want to make sure that they are continuing to be able to do that and be healthy in their families as well, Hadley said. Its pretty cool that despite all the chaos, the grinding to halt a lot of industrialized civilization, that the natural world continues apace, and we can see that right in our own backyard.

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Aspen trail users urged to exercise caution, respect seasonal closures with wildlife springs to life on local trails - Aspen Daily News