Boulder, CO Looking at Possible GPS Tracking of Bears
9 Feb 2016The city of Boulder is considering attaching GPS tracking device collars on a few bears in the next year to figure out where they explore and what their habits are when they do show up in the town.
While at this point they are just exploring the idea, there is still an advocacy group that is concerned about the idea. This past November, Val Matheson, Boulder Urban Wildlife Conservation’s Coordinator, talked with the city Space Board of Trustees and the advocacy group, Boulder Bear Coalition about the plan which is still being introduced and might not even happen.
According to Matheson, it is time to collect data about the reason the bears are in town so they can concentrate their efforts in the right location.
If this study moves forward this year, five bears would be captured, tranquilized and equipped with GPS tracking collars. The Colorado Parks & Wildlife personnel would be involved.
The whole purpose of the study is to protect the health and safety of humans and so that bears don’t have to be put down.
There was a law passed in 2014 in the city that required homeowners who lived west of Broadway to use trash cans that were bear-resistant. All decisions based off that policy both future and present were based off unreliable information. There was no way of knowing if all bear sightings were being reported by residents.
Matheson said that the ordinance and policy about bears and their protection was based for the most part on voluntary information. It relied on the residents calling the information in and is believed that a large part of the community was not doing that.
The Boulder Bear Coalition’s founder, Brenda Lee, is not fully onboard with the project at this time.
She says she has some fairly big concerns about the project based off the information she has of it and wished the advocacy group was more involved in it since the beginning. There is risk in tranquilizing bears, she says.
She feels other less invasive methods could be taken in order to gain the same information such as putting up cameras where the bears roam. Paying more attention to where the bears are rummaging and which fruit trees are present should be focused on in the city, she says.
It’s essential that the Boulder Bear Coalition is on board all the way with this since their opinion is valued and trusted by the community, she says.
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