Despite consistent raccoon activity around trash cans, there has been less animal activity on campus compared to years past.

There have been raccoons nightly around the football field and the dumpsters around the dorms, Fort Lewis College grounds supervisor Carl Gregg said.

The raccoons also like to eat some type of bug that lives in the grass, so they’ve been digging at night as well, Gregg said.

Campus police have received three reports of bear presence this semester, Deming said.

“We’ve had fewer bear reports this year and no recent signs of bears on campus,” campus police Chief Brett Deming said.

Two of these reports were bear sightings, where people called in a bear sighting, but police did not locate the bear. One report came from an officer seeing a bear, Deming said.

Two window screens at Bader Snyder have been torn by bears this semester, Deming said.

This year physical plant has not seen any bears. There was an incident where one trash can was knocked over, but Gregg wasn’t positive that it was bear-related, he said.

“Last year was really bad,” Gregg said. “There were bears knocking over trash cans nightly for two to three months straight. I would see a mom and two cubs at 5 a.m. most mornings.”

The city has switched to new bear resistant dumpsters in town, which could be keeping the bears away as well, Gregg  said.

The Environmental Center has also been mindful of keeping food away from animals on campus and is careful to not leave downed fruit in their food forest, assistant coordinator of the Environmental Center Sadie Magnifico said.

“Last year we had a late freeze that froze a lot of the bear’s food sources,” Deming said. “This spring there were no late freezes. In the woods lately there has been plentiful acorns and berries so there’s been less enticement to come to campus for food.”

Despite their other food sources, animals are drawn to campus and Durango for the same reason humans are, Magnifico said. The land is very hospitable and offers access from the mountains down to the river, she said.

“Once animals learn that food is there they come back. We can teach them where food is or we can teach them where it isn’t,” Magnifico said.