BY LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

I first became aware of this bear just shy of three weeks ago.  Every day has made me a little more sad.  She is beautiful.  She does not behave like a bear.  If she is still alive come Labor Day, I will be surprised.

She is a “garbage” bear.  I live on the North Mesa canyon pathway where big predators often enter the neighborhoods.  She is already famous.  She likes to poop near my water barrel.  Her scat suggests a really crummy diet.

I remember back in the eighties when a bear stole someone’s pie off the window sill in the Denver Steels — how quaint.  It was unusual to encounter bears before the two wildfires rearranged our world.

Our Council decided this month to deal with the bear issue through education.  This might have been a swell idea a couple of decades ago but given our current situation, it’s truly pathetic.  Bear proof rollcarts — including for recyclables — are long overdue.  Bear proof dumpsters, however imperfect they might be, are necessary everywhere now.

We are supposed to welcome growth.  We are shamed should we fail to recognize the beauty of ADUs, Air Bnbs, and densely populated developments.  I wish I could see something other than a high desert ecological disaster looming but it’s a bit hard to be hopeful.  Call me an entitled NIMBY — cruise out to the Mesa and wave at poor Blondie while she’s still around.  Watch not to run over the deer.

We really need to do something about people who refuse to be bear aware.  I have cleaned up some peoples’ trash easily several dozen times.  Noone really wants to know how much their neighbors drink, that the never recycle, have scary credit card balances, or use an awful lot of condoms.  Please mind your trash.  

It would be a relief if there was someone, anyone, to vote for next election who supported ecologically sustainable growth.  There isn’t.  All of my children are in their twenties and hope someday to be able to live in places which are wildly expensive.  There really isn’t some sort of generational divide on this issue.  We are all in it together.  Even Blondie.