Hannah Navarro, a Calico restaurant-area resident, heard a bear outside her window in the middle of the night last fall.
The bruin had sniffed out Navarro’s trash and was wrestling with her garbage can, which was chained and carabiner-latched. She jumped into action, knocking on the glass, hoping to scare the bear away.
But the bruin was undeterred. Instead, it simply sat there, eating her garbage.
“So I went and got my bear spray, and I opened up the window, and I just sprayed him in the face close-range,” Navarro told me. “And he ran off.”
Navarro now understands that her trash can was not bear-resistant and thus did not comply with Teton County rules. Teton County issued her a notice of violation last fall, informing her of the violation and urging her to purchase a new trash can.
Olivia Graykowski, a county code compliance officer, has posted hundreds of notices on trash cans throughout Jackson Hole. It’s mundane, underappreciated work. However, Graykowski’s work places her on the front lines of protecting Jackson Hole’s beloved bears.
Without enforcement, bear problems will only worsen, she said. In some neighborhoods, such as Lake Tahoe, California, metal bear boxes are required in front of nearly every house, and homeowners string electric wires across windows to deter burglars.
In Aspen, Colorado, about 30 bears have taken up residence near the Pitkin County landfill, pillaging nearby neighborhoods.
“I don’t know if people really understand where it could get to, because it hasn’t gotten there yet,” Graykowski replied. “The work we’re doing is trying to prevent that.”
In 2024, a commuter struck and killed Grizzly 399, a world-famous bear whose 2021 journey through southern Jackson Hole prompted Teton County and the Town of Jackson to step up bear-proofing efforts.
Following the grizzly matriarch’s death in the Snake River Canyon in October, the News&Guide used the Wyoming Public Records Act to request all notices of bear-resistant container violations sent by Teton County in 2024, which totaled 330 violations issued to 284 property owners.
Violations were concentrated around Wilson, Rafter J, and Highway 390. The list of violators included acclaimed mountaineer Jimmy Chin, the News&Guide’s multimedia sales manager Chad Repinski, and businesses such as the Blue Collar Restaurant Group’s Sidewinders American Grill on the West Bank and the Bodega gas station at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
Blue Collar CEO Nicole Davis stated that, because the majority of the group’s restaurants are in Jackson, she was unaware of the county requirements until receiving the notice. Sidewinders purchased a compliant dumpster shortly afterward.
Repinski also became compliant. Chin and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort did not return requests for comment.
In 2024, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported 148 black bear conflicts in Teton County, which is roughly twice the annual average.
The majority of the problems occurred in the neighborhoods where county officials issued violations: those along Highway 390, the town of Wilson, and those along Fall Creek Road south of Wilson.
Mike Boyce, a Game and Fish large carnivore biologist, said that 127 conflicts, or 85%, involved unsecured garbage. State officials relocated ten black bears and killed six.
On his morning patrols, Boyce frequently encounters trash cans that bears have “nuked,” leaving “garbage strewn about.” However, he believes the Jackson Hole community is making progress in more securely storing its trash.
“Lack of enforcement has been the missing link,” Boyce told reporters. “And we just continue to have conflicts in the same places.”
stern warnings
On a warm spring Thursday in May — trash day — Graykowski put Teton County’s Chevrolet Equinox into gear and drove straight from town to the Snake River’s West Bank.
She kept her eyes peeled as she meandered through the trash-lined streets of Wilson and off Wyoming Highway 390. She examined trash cans, determining whether they met county regulations requiring homeowners to dispose of garbage in self-locking, bear-resistant cans.
When Graykowski noticed older carabiner-latched cans similar to the one Navarro had replaced, or trash bags strewn about, she pulled over and got out of the car to photograph them on a county iPad. Graykowski attaches the photos to formal notices of violation for breaking county land-use regulations and feeding wildlife.
However, the Teton County Planning and Building Department, which enforces county regulations, has changed its approach to sending notices of violations.
According to Planning Director Chris Neubecker, officials are now focusing on enforcement rather than educating offenders.
Regulations requiring bear-resistant trash cans around Wilson have been in place since approximately 2009. However, after the new county code passed in 2022, the department began attaching orange tags to cans in an attempt to educate homeowners about the new requirements.
Code compliance officers would then draft outreach letters. In 2024, the county began taking a “sterner” approach, issuing violation notices.
However, Teton County officials cannot issue fines directly. Doing so necessitates a lengthy process known as “abatement,” which includes hearings before county commissioners and, eventually, court enforcement.
That judicial-like process has not yet occurred during Neubecker’s tenure, but it could soon.
If a property owner receives multiple notices of violation and fails to lock up their trash, the county will issue a notice of abatement, according to Neubecker. The county has a few property owners on its radar who have received multiple notifications about non-compliant bear cans.
Depending on whether those property owners comply, the county may hold an abatement hearing soon, Neubecker stated. The proceedings would closely resemble a property tax dispute.
“Teton County would present its evidence,” Neubecker said. “And then the property owner would have an opportunity to present their evidence about why they feel that they are in compliance, or they can rebut our evidence.”
Last year, one Wilson resident received four violation notices but was out of town for medical treatment. Five other county property owners received three notices in 2024.
The Town of Jackson, which later enacted new bear-proofing regulations, only requires the cans along its perimeter in a “bear conflict zone” that borders the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Tribal Trail Road. The News&Guide’s request did not include town data.
Getting canned
After receiving a county violation letter last fall, Navarro eagerly obtained a new can.
“It’s just making smart choices so that we can coexist with the wildlife in our neighborhood,” Navarro told me. “They were here first.”
Lea Fine, who also lives on Highway 390, admits she didn’t always properly latch her older trash can.
When Fine realized the bears were nearby, especially in the fall, she latched her can. But she wasn’t as passionate about it when the bears weren’t on her mind.
Fine understands she lives in bear country, and her relationship with the animals is complex.
She enjoys bears but also wants to let her dogs out. Even that can feel risky at times, she admitted while speaking with the News&Guide in her front yard.
“It’s pretty cool that you get to see these animals up close,” she told me. “But it’s a little scary.”
After receiving one violation, Fine upgraded her can. She rented a can from her trash hauler.
For the planning department, Fine and Navarro’s decision to get new cans, as well as Sidewinders’ and Repinski’s, represents progress, reducing the county’s known list of violators.
“The list used to be bigger, but now it’s smaller,” Graykowski said.
People and Bears
Boyce, the bear biologist, believes that bears and humans are better off apart.
Bruins who regularly consume garbage develop a taste for human food. “That’s something they’ll never forget,” Boyce explained.
The bears become more persistent, spending more time looking for garbage near people.
This causes conflicts, which can be “destructive and potentially dangerous,” according to Boyce. It is sometimes necessary for Game and Fish to euthanize bears.
In some areas, such as Teton Village, Game and Fish has made progress. According to Boyce, the wildlife management agency recorded only one conflict in the village last year, despite the fact that the area was previously a hotspot for conflict.
“We made some serious progress up there with the garbage storage,” he told me.
Boyce described Teton County’s enforcement as promising.
“I fully support it,” he added.
