Colorado is distributing $1 million across the state to fund projects designed to lower the number of run-ins between humans and hungry black bears seeking trashcan meals.

The latest round of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Grants will fund 17 projects, the state announced Tuesday. Since its creation in 2021, the grant program has doled out $3.9 million.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife's funding has grown in recent years — an optional $29 vehicle registration fee raised $39.7 million for CPW in 2024, exceeding its goal.

“Our quality of life, plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities, and jaw-dropping landscapes attract both families and animals to our state,” Governor Jared Polis said in a statement. “That’s why these common-sense and data-driven strategies are so important to reduce human-bear conflicts and ensure that all Coloradans and wildlife are safe.”

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The funded projects include $100,000 for Manitou Springs to give residents bear-resistant trash bins, $35,000 for a dumpster enclosure system at a new preschool in Eagle, $33,000 for the YMCA of Northern Colorado to install permanent infrastructure like electric fencing and $100,000 for Minturn to build a secure trash system for its commercial district.

Bear sightings in Colorado’s mountain towns — and even urban centers — have made headlines this summer. CPW believes a bear is responsible for dozens of garage break-ins in Littleton. Just in September, bears scratched a man in his backyard in Steamboat Springs, bit a woman at a campground near South Fork and broke into a teenage girl’s bedroom in Durango. And in Denver, a bear climbed into a tree in the Platt Park neighborhood in late August.

There have been 10 confirmed bear attacks this year, according to CPW, the most on record.

Bears seek human food, such as discarded food in trash cans, when their natural diet is limited by events like late freezes or a prolonged drought, according to a 2015 report from CPW. From mid-August to late September, bears are hungrier than usual as they prepare for hibernation.

“Because black bears can quickly become conditioned to seek human-provided food when it is made available, bear conflicts frequently reoccur in given locations,” the report says. That also means bears will return to a location where they’ve found food before.

CPW advises Coloradans to not leave trash outside, keep bird feeders high off the ground and away from trees ,and store pet food inside.