By Shannon Lukens for Steamboat Radio News. Screen shot courtesy the Oak Creek Town Hall video camera.

The Town of Oak Creek will be buying 550 new bear-resistant trash containers, with help from a grant for $161,625 from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The town will be matching it with $53,875.

Here’s Oak Creek Town Administrator Louis Fineberg.

“Once we place the order, I was told by the shipping company that the 550 containers would come on three tractor trailers. When they arrive in Oak Creek, we would unload them, and store them up at the Public Works Facility and then we can take those containers and start to deliver them to the residential trash customers.”

Each residential trash customer in Oak Creek will get one free trash container. Fineberg says he hopes everyone has their new container by next spring, at the start of bear season.

He says the Oak Creek Town Board is planning to pass an ordinance that each resident is required to use the new trash cans or they will be fined.

Past Steamboat Radio News Coverage

• Sept. 15, 2026 — Oak Creek residents to get Bear Resistant Trash Containers
• Sept. 9, 2026 — SSPD to start issuing citations to Mountain Village Apartments, because of the bears in the trash there
• Sept. 4, 2026 — Bear swipes man in Steamboat Springs
• Sept. 3, 2026 —Thirteen bears in Routt County have been euthanized by CPW
• Sept. 2, 2026 — A bear pair is breaking into apartments near Whistler Road
• Aug. 29, 2026 — Guest Column — Here’s how YOU can help with the starving bears
• Aug. 25, 2026 — A bear that got into Casey’s Pond in July was euthanized
• Aug. 24, 2026 — Routt County Dispatch responds to 87 bear calls in one week
• Aug. 21, 2026 — Bear and cubs in landscaper’s truck
• Aug. 19, 2026 — A bear has attacked a woman in Steamboat Springs
• July 31, 2026 — Human-Bear Conflicts are up 214% from last year in Routt County
• July 3, 2026 — Be aware of Bear Activity in Steamboat Springs
• May 27, 2026 — New Bill strengthens penalties for those found to knowingly feed bears
• March 1, 2025 — CPW offers $1M in grants to help reduce conflicts with bears
• Aug. 27, 2025 — A $73K statewide grant is awarded to YVHA for bearproofing
• June 23, 2025 — CPW is looking for a bear that has been getting into homes in Steamboat Springs
• March 19, 2025 — CPW is offering grants to help reduce conflicts with bears
• Nov. 4, 2024 — Bear conflicts are up in Moffat County and statewide but down in Routt County
• May 22, 2024 —  (Story updated) CPW is trying to trap a bear that swiped at a person in Steamboat Springs Tuesday
• May 13, 2024  — Close the Lid on your Bear-Resistant Trash Cans 
• Feb. 26, 2024 —  Bear conflicts in NW Colorado go down in 2023
• Oct. 16, 2023 —  Sick bear in Steamboat Springs euthanized by CPW
• Aug. 22, 2023 — Steamboat Springs awarded grant for Human-Bear Conflict Reduction
• Aug. 1, 2023 — Bears will soon start looking for dens
• June 20, 2023 — Bear in Blue Sage area has been caught
• June 18, 2023 — Wildlife officers plan to euthanized bear in window
• June 1, 2023 — Don’t use a gun to haze bears away
• March 13, 2023 — CPW offers $1M in grants to help reduce conflicts with bears
• Feb. 15, 2023 — Bear conflicts go up for 2022 in Northwest Colorado
• Aug. 15, 2022 — A Steamboat man shot and killed a bear that was in his home early Saturday morning
• July 12, 2022 — Steamboat bears are busy this summer
• Aug. 28, 2022 — Five goats killed by a bear in Oak Creek Canyon
• April 14, 2022 — Be Bear Aware — CPW asks that you do your part to reduce conflicts
• March 24, 2022 — “Be Bear Aware” is the focus for Leadership Steamboat this year
• Feb. 28, 2022 — Northwest Colorado has the most bear sightings and conflicts in Colorado for 2021
• Oct. 26, 2021 —  Warning issued to man injured in bear attack in South Routt County back in late May
• Sept. 16, 2021 —  CPW traps second bear in Steamboat neighborhood
• Sept. 7, 2021 — A Black Bear is shot in a home in Steamboat overnight
• Aug. 12, 2021 — Black Bears entering Hyperphagia stage
• July 26, 2021 — Bear euthanized in Hahns Peak area
• June 5, 2021 —  Update on Bear Attack in Whitewood Subdivision
• May 31, 2021 — Routt County Man Injured in Bear Attack