The smell of lunch proved irresistible for a young black bear that snuck into an Aspen middle school and headed for the cafeteria Monday. Authorities captured and relocated the cub without incident. Not every human-bear encounter turns out well for ursine wonderers, however.
Sometimes bears die from the sedation required for relocation. Other times they must be euthanized for public safety. Of the 3,526 bear encounters reported to Colorado Parks and Wildlife last year, 33 bears were relocated and 63 put down.
Because bears must consume some 20,000 calories a day in the autumn months to prepare for hibernation, fall can prove particularly perilous for the big omnivores. Unsecured trash cans and compost bins, bird feeders, and ripe fruit scattered on the ground draw bears into neighborhoods where their appetite gets them in trouble. This year, bears have been spotted in Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Golden, Littleton, and other cities along the Front Range.
We must find ways to protect these bears.
Community Fruit Rescue was started to foster healthy coexistence with bears by getting a source of temptation out of bears’ way and has embraced a greater mission supporting human, tree, and animal health. The rescue is one of several organizations that organize volunteers to glean unharvested fruits and vegetables from farms, public spaces, and backyards.
This year they are expanding to Lyons, and every community in the wildlife-urban interface needs a fruit rescue team.
Deterring bears from backyard forays isn’t the only reason to ensure fruit doesn’t go to waste. More than a third of all food produced in the US is never eaten. It’s thrown out or left to rot unharvested. Not only is this a waste of food, it’s a waste of the resources used to grow, harvest, store, transport, and prepare it including water, chemicals, labor, and energy mainly derived from fossil fuels. Uneaten, food waste gets buried in landfills where it produces the greenhouse gas methane which contributes to global warming. Wasted food is also a wasted opportunity to help families struggling to put a meal on the table during a time of inflation.
Fortunately, Coloradans are tackling the challenge of food waste in our state with creativity and resolve. A couple of years ago, this column highlighted the work of We Don’t Waste, a Denver-based organization that recovers food the industry would have been thrown out and distributes it through hunger relief organizations and mobile markets. Since 2009, We Don’t Waste has recovered 50 million pounds of delicious, nutritious food from restaurants and other venues that would not have otherwise made its way to a plate.
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This week I spoke with Melanie Hill, the executive director of Community Fruit Rescue, the nonprofit that organizes volunteers to harvest unpicked fruit from neighborhoods, parks, and orchards in Boulder, Longmont, and Lyons.
Since 2014, Community Fruit Rescue has rescued 110,000 pounds of potentially wasted fruit giving much of it to organizations serving low-income individuals and families and animal rescue nonprofits. The fruit rescue also rents out DIY harvest kits and cider presses to help individuals harvest their own fruit trees and provides education on how to keep backyard trees healthy.
Thanks to a wet spring and hot summer, Front Range fruit trees produced more fruit than usual and that fruit has ripened faster. Fruit rescue organizations are in need of more volunteers to keep up and donations to build capacity for the future.
As the human population thrives in proximity to wildlife, we need to do our part to ensure peaceful coexistence. It is far better to remove the backyard temptation than to remove the bear. And, by recovering fruit and other potential food waste, we can reduce water and fossil fuel consumption and help Coloradans in need.
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.
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