- Make your property safe by removing all bear attractants.
- Have a plan in case a bear is inside your home. Give a bear that is in your home an escape route by propping all doors open. Place a rock, for example, near all doors to do so.
- Close all bear-accessible windows and doors when you are gone, asleep or cooking.
- Replace lever style door handles with round knobs that bears can’t open.
- Keep a canister of bear spray handy.
- Place a bucket with rocks you can throw on decks or near doors to ward off bears.
- Be careful with food inside your home.
- Talk to your children about bears and how to act around them.
- Never approach bears in your yard and never crowd or harass bears.
- Immediately report any aggressive or potentially dangerous bears by calling Colorado Parks and Wildlife at 970-247-0855, or 911.
“Any time humans and bears encounter each other, especially around a food source, the potential for danger is there, and that’s what we’re really trying to avoid.” — Ryan Millbern, Vail Police Department, 2009