A preferred campground in Colorado’s White River Nationwide Forest has taken the proactive and strange step of banning tents and all different soft-sided shelters to maintain campers secure from bears. The U.S. Forest Service enacted the tent ban at Tough Campground on Wednesday, after a black bear scratched at a tent there with two younger kids inside it.
The incident passed off at night time on June 9 at the general public campground, which is situated within the mountains east of Aspen and is managed by hosts with American Land and Leisure. (The non-public firm contracts with the federal authorities to supervise numerous Forest Service campgrounds in Colorado and different states.) The campground hosts mentioned the bear left puncture marks on the tent however didn’t get inside, the place a younger boy and lady, each below the ages of 12, had been sleeping. Their mother and father, who had been in one other tent subsequent to them, didn’t be taught in regards to the incident till they awoke Tuesday morning.
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“The subsequent morning, they had been like, ‘Hey, mother, a bear was right here,’” one of many campground hosts, who wished to stay nameless, informed the Aspen Instances. “The children had been completely wonderful. They had been a little bit freaked out, however they nonetheless went mountain climbing later with their mother and father. They weren’t traumatized.”
After notifying Forest Service officers Tuesday, the campground hosts labored with the company to filter out all of the tent campers from the positioning. There have been roughly 20 tents there, in accordance with the Aspen Instances, and the campers had been both refunded or relocated to a different close by website.
Outside Life reached out to American Land and Leisure for extra particulars in regards to the bear incident and the ensuing ban on soft-sided shelters. The corporate didn’t present a response as of press time Tuesday.
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The campground hosts informed the Instances, nonetheless, that the tent ban would stay in place for the following two months. They mentioned they skilled related points final 12 months with food-conditioned black bears breaking into tents and coolers. They added that “the bears had been right here first” and “that is their house,” and that campers are the actual visitors.
The Forest Service clarified in Wednesday’s public security launch that hard-sided campers and trailers are nonetheless permitted at Tough Campground. The company additionally reminded public-land customers that the whole White River Nationwide Forest has a food-storage order in place, and that guests ought to take each precaution to maintain bears and different wildlife from acquiring human meals and/or trash.
“Maintaining bears from getting your meals retains you secure, retains your neighboring campers and the campers who observe you secure, and helps preserve the bears secure,” deputy district ranger Jennifer Schuller mentioned within the announcement.
