Some type of large animal, most likely a bear, was spotted on the west side of Laramie on Friday, causing the city to close sections of the Laramie River Greenbelt.
As of publication Friday evening, the area remained closed and a trouble bear hadn’t been found.
The city reported the closure “due to a bear sighting” near the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory on the eastern side of Interstate 80. The bear appeared to have wandered down from the hills in search of food.
Barricades were installed on streets in the vicinity of the sighting, and residents were asked to avoid the area for their own safety.
Cowboy State Daily was unable to reach the city of Laramie or the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for additional information.
Bears And Barricades
There’s been an influx of bear sightings and incidents in southeast Wyoming this year.
Two black bears wandered into Cheyenne three days apart in mid-May. One of the bears, a 2-year-old male, was captured after it sought shelter in Karolyn Middleton’s barn.
Wyoming Game and Fish "told me it was probably a young bear that had been pushed out a little way,” Middleton told Cowboy State Daily on May 12.
The second bear was shot and killed after wandering into a subdivision on the north side of Cheyenne.
It was legally taken by a landowner in the area that had a valid hunting tag for black bear hunt Area 35, which includes Cheyenne.
“The bear wandered to a neighboring property, and my neighbor went in the house, came back out with hunter orange on and a rifle, walked up to where the bear was hiding, and shot it dead,” a neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told Cowboy State Daily. “Point-blank range, doubt it was 10 feet."
Before that, an injured black bear was found up a tree in Cheyenne’s Clear Creek Park in September 2023. That bear was tranquilized, lifted out of the tree by a cherry picker, and relocated westward to the Snowy Range.
In 2022, a 2-year-old male black bear was found wandering in a Laramie neighborhood. That bear was also tranquilized and released in the Snowy Range.
Recolonization
Black bears have, historically, been rare in the southeastern corner of Wyoming, but there are indications that their range might be expanding.
“I hate to say things are impossible, because wildlife continues to adapt and surprise us,” said Wyoming Game and Fish Large Carnivore Specialist Dan Thompson. “Black bears evolved with forested ecosystems, and in the last half-century or less, we have started seeing expansions of black bears back into previous haunts in North America, or more appropriately, recolonization."
Laramie resident Anne Brande wasn’t surprised to hear a black bear was spotted in that particular spot.
“It’s a riparian area in the Laramie Basin in June,” she said. “He’s looking for food and water, and I’m sure that’s an enticing spot for a bear.”
Brande, who “walks the greenbelt daily,” found some irony in the city of Laramie’s response. While they’re obviously trying to preserve people’s safety, it’s because of a fact, she feels, they’ve been reluctant to acknowledge.
“City Manager Todd Feezer told the Laramie City Council and the public that the Laramie Greenbelt has no wildlife,” she said. “It’s like when they spotted a mountain lion over by LaPrele Park and told people, ‘Don’t go there,’ and the whole community flocked there because everybody wanted a mountain lion sighting.”
Brand wasn’t concerned about the black bear sighting. She didn’t think it would be a fan of the neighborhood.
“It’s not like he’s going there to hang out,” she said. “I don't think he's going to like all the people in the neighborhoods around that area. He’s going to pass through. Wildlife passes great distances. They’re used to that.”
Greenbelt Blight
For Brande, the black bear sighting was a sign of how wild and habitable the Laramie Greenbelt is for local wildlife. That’s been a point of contention between Laramie residents and the local government.
“The City Council keeps talking about the West Side Blight Plan, and that’s very frustrating to me,” she said. “It's the Laramie River Greenbelt Blight Plan, and a lot of people have been blindsided by it.”
According to Brande, the Laramie city manager and planner presented the West Side Blight Plan to make infrastructure improvements like streets, curbs, gutters, and sewer to the area around the Laramie River Greenbelt Park.
One of their main points in favor of developing the area was that, according to Brande, it was inhospitable to wildlife because it had been a superfund site. Brande said that’s patently untrue.
“I’ve personally seen herons there,” she said. “I have seen a bald eagle there. I see raccoons and foxes there. People got there for fly fishing and birdwatching. There is a ton of wildlife there, and that's why I love it so much.”
Brande also said the city’s position on the habitat assessment of the Laramie Greenbelt hasn’t been consistent at the public meetings she’s made a point to attend, so she can speak against the West Side Blight Plan.
“At first, I was told there's no wildlife there because it’s too contaminated,” she said. “During subsequent public meetings, after I was told that it was too polluted to have wildlife, they said there were no pollutants, but it would still be good to do a blight designation. It was extremely confusing.”
At this point, Brande said it’s all “water under the bridge” since the Laramie City Council approved the blight designation. Now, she’s hoping they won’t pursue their intended projects.
'A Treasure'
From what Brande has heard, the area around Laramie River Greenbelt Park has been proposed as a potential site for a future housing development. She’s against that plan, on principle and practicality.
“You don't want to monetize an extreme floodplain, and that's a FEMA extreme floodplain of the Laramie River,” she said.
Brande sees the Laramie Greenbelt as an undervalued natural asset for the city of Laramie and believes many other residents share her perspective. It’s an easily accessible piece of wilderness for people who want to step away from the bustle of Wyoming’s biggest college town.
“I see people from all over the county actually using the greenbelts with me very often,” she said. “You don’t have to have a car or drive to Medicine Bow National Forest to find a spot like this. It’s a 10-minute walk from my house.”
Brande hopes the Laramie River Greenbelt will remain as it is. Even if the alluring environment draws in the occasional black bear, it’s a sign that there’s a habitat worth preserving in Laramie, for wildlife and residents.
“I'm talking to you in a metropolitan coffee shop in San Francisco, California, and I haven't seen one bird,” she said. “Not one. You’ve got to enjoy the Greenbelt because it’s such an accessible way for anyone to find nature in our community. It gives me such peace of mind. It’s a treasure.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
