The leash laws for dogs at local beaches and trails proposed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area have stirred up a frenzy of discussion and debate over whether or not they truly will improve the affected areas for people, animals, and wildlife alike.
Scheduled for a final ruling in late 2015, the Supplemental Dog Management Plan/Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement proposed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area aims to limit the areas in which dogs can be walked off leash locally.
The leash restrictions have been proposed due to potential damage to birds and local wildlife.
Proposed back in 2011, the plan received roughly 4,700 responses and in those responses roughly 8,000 comments.
While the public commenting period recently ended on Feb. 18, the plan is still being met with larger resistance from groups such as the Marin County Dog Owner’s Group, who openly voice their concerns on their website www.marincountydog.org.
According to the DOG, 99% of the GGNRA is off-limits for dogs, and the proposed plan will effectively eliminate or limit the remaining one percent of trails and beaches that allow dogs.
In addition to the DOG, the Marin Humane Society voiced their concerns about the plan in a letter sent to the GGNRA Feb. 6.
The Marin Humane Society said that they “represent many dog guardians throughout Marin,” and that they were worried that the new leash laws would greatly limit owners’ abilities to recreate with their dogs in public places they feel should allow off-leash animals under voice control.
On the other side of the debate, the Marin Audubon Society supports the proposed laws.
Now, as all the comments are in and being amassed, the comments will be reviewed and the plan will be reopened to public review in late fall when a new draft ruling is released.
After the 2011 version of the plan received numerous comments it was redrafted in a 2013 supplemental draft, which saw many changes and a bit more leniency than the original proposition.
One altered part of the plan effected Muir Beach. While the original plan called for a ban of dogs on the beach, the newest version requires dogs to be on-leash on the beach.
The plan calls for dogs to be banned on the Miwok, Oakwood Valley, Coastal, and Rhubarb Trails, while off-leash access will be reduced to on-leash access only at Rodeo Beach Loop, Alta Trail, Oakwood Valley Fire Road, Orchard Fire Road, Pacheco Fire Road, and the Homestead/Four Corners Area.
In total 22 locations are discussed in the plan, eight of which are in Marin and according to the Dog Owner’s Group the only place the plan is leaving off-leash access to is Rodeo Beach.
