Homeless campers on La Plata County property are governing themselves through a volunteer council.

This winter, Lt. Ed Aber of the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office asked for volunteers interested in serving on a council to help govern the camping area.

Six people volunteered, he said.

“My goal this winter was to empower those folks that live here year-round and try to develop some leadership amongst them to help influence the large transient population,” he said.

He gave council members a list of five rules, and they came back with 17 to govern the area. Camp hosts enforce the rules in the camp, and so far, it’s working to improve living conditions and reduce conflict.

“I’m not getting calls nearly as much; they are handling things themselves,” he said.

Campers are not allowed to have fires, must keep their camps clean and must keep to themselves after dusk. They also have to donate two hours a week to keeping the mountain clean, not just their campsite, Aber said.

After a bear attack in 2015 on a homeless teen, Aber and others with the Sheriff’s Office worked with homeless people to keep their camps clean. After years of shutting camps down and having them spring up elsewhere, the Sheriff’s Office told residents camps would be left alone if they were kept clean and the campers obeyed the law.