Star Valley Ranch's Bear Year Comes Down to the Hours a Trash Can Sits Out

The town's special municipal officer kept finding apples on the ground under one resident's tree and couldn't work out why. Then a young black bear climbed down out of it. The Star Valley Independent told that story in September, along with the officer's photo of the yearling halfway down the trunk. Wyoming Game and Fish trapped and relocated that bear.

A second encounter ended differently. Mayor Ru Rok told the paper that a sow with three cubs got into garbage and tried to get into two houses. One was inside town limits and the other was on adjacent county land. Game and Fish euthanized the sow because of how she was behaving, and the cubs were euthanized too because they were too young to survive alone. In the weeks since, the town has been writing a rule that comes down to the clock: how many hours a trash can spends outside, and on which streets that matters.

A Year That Broke the Pattern

The long-run count is small. At the October 13 Town Council meeting, Mayor Rok cited Game and Fish data current through January 2025 showing 33 black bear conflicts in Star Valley Ranch since 2011. That works out to fewer than three a year. The Mayor also said two bears have been relocated and five euthanized, and the draft minutes record that most of those happened this year, after that data was compiled. The Mayor also said no bear conflicts were recorded last year, and that this year brought unprecedented activity across the region.

This year moved quickly. Reports began around mid-August on the trail system next to town. By the last week of August and the first week of September, the town had received what the Mayor called "a great many reports of black bears in town."

Two explanations have been offered for the food shortage. The Mayor pointed to a late freeze in May that damaged berry crops. The town's October newsletter mentions dry conditions and reduced natural forage. A separate Star Valley Independent report on statewide conflicts connected the unusual increase across Wyoming to drought and thin natural forage, so the Ranch's experience is part of a statewide pattern this year.

Sunday Night to Wednesday Morning

When the berries are thin, a garbage can becomes the easiest meal in reach, and the hours it sits outside are when a bear can find it. The October town newsletter makes that concrete. Deb Johnson, the town's Parks and Landscape Chair and Community Gardens Coordinator, wrote that she walks her dog Cookie around town and sees "trash cans sitting out on Sundays for Wednesday and Thursday pickups. That's simply an invitation for trouble."

A can that goes out Sunday evening for a Wednesday pickup spends about two and a half days at the curb. One that goes out at dawn on Wednesday is out for a few hours. The newsletter asks residents to wait until pickup morning, bring cans back in promptly, and make sure visitors and short-term rental guests know the schedule too.

The town had already tried education. It started sending bear-awareness notices in mid-August and hung a large banner at the mail center. After the sow and cubs, the Mayor told the Independent the council would "take another look."

What the Draft Would Put in Writing

That second look is Ordinance 2026-18. It would add a new Section 90.30, covering wildlife attractants and bear-resistant refuse storage, to the chapter of town code that already has supplemental-feeding rules in Sections 90.25 through 90.29. It passed first reading on October 13. Under the first-reading text, nothing in it takes effect until 10 days after a third reading and passage.

The printed draft and the council's own discussion that day, recorded in the draft work-session minutes, already differ on several points:

At the regular meeting that evening, a councilmember said the ordinance was moving forward for awareness "with no guarantee of reaching a third reading," and the Mayor said she expected substantial changes before second reading. The October 13 minutes are still marked draft. The October 27 work session agenda listed Ordinance 2026-18 for second reading, and the work-session minutes say marked-up versions would circulate before the November reading. The current wording will be on the town's Town Council agendas and minutes page.

The Open Questions Start With the Clock and the Map

Public comment and council discussion on October 13 returned again and again to which months and hours the rule would cover and which plats, along with practical questions about storage and self-hauling.

• Season. One commenter asked why a rule for seasonal bear activity would apply all 12 months. Another reported bear activity on property cameras from September through November. On the council side, one member floated an August through October enforcement window. Others replied that bear activity started in mid-July this year and that complaints came in as early as April. One garbage can vendor a councilmember contacted doesn't offer seasonal service.
• Boundaries. Residents asked why Plat 13 was left out despite bear activity along the forest line, and why the lower plats bordering the national forest weren't in the zone. The councilmember who drafted the zones explained she drew them before Planning and Zoning and Game and Fish data arrived, which happened that same day.
• Pickup hours. A commenter pointed out that RAD, one of the town's haulers, may start pickup at 6:00 a.m., which leaves a 6 a.m. set-out time with almost no margin. The same comment asked where homes without garages would store cans.
• Self-haulers. Another commenter noted that collection-day language assumes trash service, while many residents haul their own.

Fruit Trees, Bird Seed and the Rest of the List

The bear in the September photo came down out of an apple tree, and fruit trees fall outside any trash schedule. At the work session, a councilmember reported on a JH Bear Solutions presentation that listed the top attractants as:

1. Garbage
2. Pet food
3. Bird seed
4. Nectar
5. Compost
6. Vegetable gardens
7. Fruit trees

The same councilmember abstained on first reading. He said the ordinance deals with only one of the major attractants identified at the bear workshop, and that the one known study, from Durango, Colorado, found bears simply moved to the part of town without bear-resistant containers. Another councilmember voted yes, saying a similar effort two years ago was followed by fewer incidents. The work session discussed the Durango study and dropping the zone for a town-wide rule in the same exchange.

The broader advice from Wyoming Game and Fish's Bear Wise Wyoming guidance is to keep garbage in a bear-resistant container or a building a bear can't get into, and to remove attractants promptly after a conflict. Those steps don't depend on how the ordinance ends up.

Where the Can Actually Goes

For households with curbside service, RAD Curbside lists Star Valley Ranch as a service area and notes that Star Valley Disposal is now RAD Curbside. RAD's site lists an Afton office at 199 West 2nd Avenue. It also advertises 96-gallon bear-proof carts, but the prices posted with them are for Teton Valley, so ask the Afton office about local availability and cost.

For self-haulers, the closest drop-off is IDAWY's Thayne facility on Strawberry Creek Road. It's open Monday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and stops admitting vehicles at 4:45 p.m. IDAWY's Thayne cost page lists a $10 gate fee and $115 per ton for municipal solid waste. If you haul your own, your trash spends its time in your garage or shed, and the curb-hours debate doesn't apply to you. A commenter on October 13 pointed out that gap in the collection-day language.

Not every home near town falls under the ordinance. The Mayor told the Independent that a long-term fix needs Lincoln County's cooperation, because some homes in the Star Valley Ranch area sit outside town jurisdiction. One of the two houses the sow tried to enter was one of them.

This post is general information about a proposal that is still changing. It isn't legal advice, so check the current ordinance text with the town or a qualified professional before you rely on any requirement.

At Speakman Realty Group, we're keeping track of how Ordinance 2026-18 changes through its November readings. If you'd like help sorting out what the final version means for your plat, your trash routine, or your rental guests' checkout instructions, contact us and we'll walk through it with you.