Trash Service For The Mountain?

A Casper Mountain resident is pitching an idea that he says might help reduce bear-human conflicts on the mountain.  County resident,  Paul Roberts, wants to offer a trash removal service for Casper Mountain and he met with Natrona County Commissioners this week to talk about his idea.

"I'm proposing to find a way to do a year round trash pickup service.  The mountain has never had it and I just dont want to see it become a junkyard."

Key to his belief that such a service is needed is the problem of bear human conflict that arises when trash gets left out.  Roberts brought along  Robin Kepple,  from the Wyoming Game and Fish  Casper Field Office, to help him make his case.

"Basically from 2008 to 2009 there were 18 bear human conflicts up on the mountain and of those conflicts 6 of them or 33 percent were directly related to trash."

Kepple  says a human-food-conditioned bear was euthanized two years ago and Kepple sees the proposal for trash removal as a positive step toward preventing another such incident along with preventing further property damage.

Roberts' idea would require a variance from Planning and Zoning.  He says he approached that department and was sent back to the commission who say they want to see further development of his business plan.  Pulling together a business plan, he says, will include a survey of mountain residents this spring.  If  his idea were to go forward,  he says all equipment and vehicles would be stored out of site and trash collected would go off the mountain the same day.