In contrast to years past, wildlife managers in the Grand Valley have had few problems this year with hungry bears.

Plenty of winter snows have produced adequate food for bears coming out of winter hibernation and the relatively wide–open back–country of the Western Slope gives the animals plenty of room to roam.

That's not the case in the Aspen and Glenwood Springs areas where bears have already become a nuisance. Although the High Country around the Roaring Fork Valley has enough food, bears there have become acclimated to eating garbage and stealing from humans. That's caused the Division of Wildlife to develop an experimental aggressive control program for bears in Glenwood Springs.

Officials say that as the High Country around the Grand Valley dries out and the fruits in Palisade ripen some bears could come down from the surrounding hills, but hungry bruins shouldn't be as much of a problem as previous years when food was scarce.

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