BEAR TRAP

cies living in Colorado — to relocate them, avoid putting them down and reduce chances of further con ict.

“Je just doesn’t do anything halfway,” says Frank McGee, who supervised Belveal when the project began, before becoming CPW’s law enforcement training manager. “He’s very self-motivated as well, and I’ve always appreciated the way he takes pride in his work. He takes each and every part of his job seriously.”

Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates that the state’s bear population hovers between 17,000 and 20,000. A spring freeze or drought conditions can su ciently infringe on natural food sources to nudge bears into close contact with humans — circumstances that people often exacerbate through behavior that encourages interaction and often, much to wildlife o cers’ dismay, leads to fatal consequences for the bears.

Since the implementation of a new statewide bear reporting system in 2019, CPW has logged over 18,300 sightings and con icts with bears, and nearly one-third of them involved enticements like trash cans and dumpsters. e problem has become pervasive enough that CPW recently announced it will be continuing a $1 million competitive grant program launched with state funding two years ago for local projects aimed at reducing bear con ict.

When bears persist, traps may be used to capture, tag and release them — one important strategy to avoid putting them down. Since 2015, CPW has relocated 461 bears.

But over the years, more than a dozen wildlife areas across the state have accumulated such a variety of traps that on many occasions o cers scramble to nd the right one for a particular situation. Many of them are old and crusted with rust. And so began the quest to sift through the features and shortcomings of the agency’s rapidly deteriorating collection and build a better bear trap — preferably one that could be adapted to any situation.

If possible, it would be produced in-house, a more economical option than buying from a vendor, which could run $25,000 per trap.

Belveal has been working on the project in ts and starts over the last two years, and so far has completed four of the six planned for his home Area 14, a swath of the state reaching from Teller County, through Colorado Springs and clear to the Kansas state line. At a cost of about $5,000 in materials plus his time on the clock, the nished traps have saved the agency an estimated $80,000.

And though the rst tests of the traps still lie ahead, CPW has been so thrilled with Belveal’s ingenuity, persistence and attention to detail that the agency recently named him its outstanding technician of the year. But his can-do legacy was forged well before he reshaped a critical tool for dealing with problem bears.

Walking across his property at the edge of the Flagler State Recreation Area, Belveal extends a friendly, down-home demeanor and a viselike handshake that o ers no hint of the physical trials of his childhood.

Born seven weeks premature at 3 pounds, 7 ounces, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy that triggered symptoms known as hemiplegia, muscle atrophy that weakened the entire right side of his body. With a right leg an inch shorter than his left, he walked with a limp and, into his middle school years, slept in a brace to stretch his tendons.

“My dad and mom never made excuses for me because of my disability,” Belveal says. “I was never a victim, always encouraged and told I could do anything any other man could do.”

Belveal’s parents divorced when he was 10, and he initially lived with his mom in Karval and later Brush.

At 15, he moved in with his dad, who moved to Colorado Springs so Belveal could attend a small Christian high school. ere, he spent his freshman year lifting weights to aid his rehabilitation. e following year he took up wrestling.

In his rst year of competition, he spent virtually every match pinned to the mat. When he nally broke through with a victory his junior year, he built on that success with a work ethic and irrepressible attitude that earned him the admiration of his coach and teammates — and a

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