Colorado Parks and Wildlife logs over 6,000 statewide bear sightings in 2026 so far

Colorado’s suburban bear encounters are surging — and your trash can is basically a welcome mat.

If you’ve been spotting more bears wandering through your neighborhood lately, you’re not imagining things — and no, that 400-pound black bear rifling through your recycling bin at 2 a.m. is not your neighbor’s new dog.

Bear sightings and conflicts across the Denver metro area and along the Front Range, including one this week in my Lone Tree neighborhood,  are surging in 2026, with Colorado Parks and Wildlife logging over 6,000 statewide sightings and incidents by mid-August alone. That’s nearly double previous averages, and the summer isn’t even over yet. So yeah, this is a thing now.

Drought and shrinking food sources in the foothills are pushing black bears down to lower elevations in search of calories. When the wild berries dry up and natural forage gets scorched by wildfires, bears don’t just shrug and go hungry — they adapt. And adapting, apparently, means heading straight into Jefferson, Douglas and Boulder counties, where the buffet is open 24 hours a day and absolutely nobody has locked up the trash.

Then there’s hyperphagia, which is the fancy scientific term for the biological panic mode bears enter in late summer. Before hibernation, a bear needs to pack on serious calories — we’re talking up to 20,000 calories a day. They become bolder, more active and significantly less concerned about your property lines. Honestly, you have to respect the commitment.

And then there’s us. Bird feeders. Unsecured trash cans sitting at the curb since Tuesday. Pet food left on the back porch. For a bear in hyperphagia mode, a suburban neighborhood doesn’t look like a danger zone — it looks like a five-star all-inclusive resort.

Once a bear finds an easy meal in your yard, it will come back. Every single time. That’s not a threat — that’s just biology.

In response to the spike in conflicts, Colorado enacted a new misdemeanor law that makes it explicitly illegal to intentionally leave out food or trash that attracts bears. So if you’ve been casually ignoring the “secure your trash” warnings for years, congratulations — it’s now officially a legal problem, not just a neighborly one.

The law is aimed at cutting off the reward cycle that keeps bears returning to residential areas. Simple concept: no easy food, fewer bears knocking on your door.

Look, nobody’s asking you to relocate to a concrete bunker. But there are some pretty straightforward steps that make a real difference.

Lock down your trash. Keep garage doors closed and only put your trash out on the morning of pickup. Use bear-resistant containers if you’ve got them. Leaving a can out overnight in bear country right now is basically putting out a neon “Open” sign.

Ditch the bird feeders — for now. We know, we know. But birds can find food on their own. Bears cannot apparently resist a dangling tube of seeds hanging from your deck at eye level.

Store pet and livestock feed indoors. Don’t leave it sitting in the garage or on the porch. Bears have an extraordinary sense of smell — they can detect food from miles away, so that bag of kibble you left by the back door? They know.

Close and lock your garage door. This one seems obvious, but bears have absolutely no problem walking right into an open garage. It happens constantly.

If you come face-to-face with one: Stay calm. Seriously — panicking is the worst thing you can do.

• Stand tall and make yourself look big. Don’t crouch or try to hide.
• Do not run. Running triggers a chase response, and you will lose that race every single time.
• Make noise. Talk firmly, clap your hands, let the bear know you are not prey.
• Back away slowly without turning your back on the animal.

In most cases, a black bear doesn’t want a confrontation any more than you do. It wants your garbage. Give it an exit route and don’t corner it.

Colorado has always shared space with wildlife — that’s part of the deal when you live along the Front Range. But 6,000-plus incidents by mid-August is a signal that the balance has shifted, and a lot of it comes down to easily preventable human behavior.

Secure your food sources. Follow the new rules. And maybe do a quick scan of the backyard before you let the dog out at night.

The bears aren’t going anywhere. But we can at least stop inviting them to dinner.

For more information on bear safety and reporting sightings, visit Colorado Parks and Wildlife at cpw.state.co.us.