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Spudtacular viewing
When Mr. Potato Head caught wind of this year’s Potato Day theme – Spudtacular Views: Celebrating Colorado’s Fourteeners – he dropped what he was doing (which was pretty much nothing) and rolled into town with his binoculars. Potato Day is Sept. 27 with the farmer’s market in Sopris Park opening at 8 a.m., followed by the parade down Main Street at 10:30 a.m., music with the Starletts from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., barbecue from noon to 2 p.m., and Bareback Bonanza at Gus Darien arena at 3 p.m. (registration at 2 p.m.). See you there, there and there. Photo illustration by Jane Bachrach and Terri Ritchie
Sun
Volume 6, Number 34 | September 25, 2014
Trustees OK bear ordinance Addresses “a perpetual problem” John Colson Sopris Sun Correspondent he town of Carbondale wants your trash to be stored in containers strong enough to resist a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), even though it is highly unlikely that a “grizz” will ever visit your trash can or your home. That is one of the provisions contained within an emergency ordinance passed by the town’s trustees at a meeting on Tuesday, which is intended to prevent the local population of black bears (much smaller and less fierce than grizzlies, but troublesome enough in their own right) from getting into your trash and triggering a process that too often ends when the bear is “put down” or killed by wildlife officials. “With the confluence of the Roaring Fork and the Crystal (rivers), they’re just starting to come into town more and more frequently,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Manager John Groves, about Carbondale’s growing bear problems. “As we’ve seen in Aspen, it’s going to be a perpetual problem.” And town officials stressed that the problem is not with the bears, really — it’s the people, whose habits concerning trash storage are creating an attractive nuisance. Although there was some discussion about other attractions that draw bears, such as fruit trees in back yards, these things were not included in the ordinance. “What we’re looking at is trying to get people to put their trash in secured areas (and) comply with the hours (for putting out the trash),” said Carbondale Police Chief Gene Schilling, explaining the emergency ordinance to the trustees on Tuesday. As part of that effort, the new ordinance states that trash should be stored in “bear-resistant” containers or structures, as outlined by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC), which was founded in 1983 to lead the effort to pull the grizzly bear population of North America back from the brink of extinction. The “emergency” nature of the new ordinance is due to the town’s concerns that bears are being killed because of human failings — specifically, not
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