GGNRA working with coastside residents who walk their dogs

Half Moon Bay Review/Mark Noack, 11/7/13.  "GGNRA event centers on Rancho dog rules."

So easy, even a dog can read it

GGNRA is not your city,
not your property,
not your friend.
Now if you were a bear or a frog...

Oh, oh, no leash,
and wrong property

....  "On the Coastside, the issue has centered squarely on Rancho Corral de Tierra, a property partially encircling the Midcoast that has long been used by local dog walkers who became accustomed to few formal rules. GGNRA took possession of the property in 2011 and began urging people to leash their animals. National Park officials point out that they need to consider the impact dogs have on threatened species, public safety and other user groups.  

Earlier this year, the National Park Service announced all of the Rancho Corral property would be tentatively open for leashed dog walking. However, under the agency’s preferred plan for the Rancho Corral lands, dogs eventually would need to be leashed and limited to two trails bordering Montara and El Granada. 

The agency presented six separate options for Rancho Corral, some of which propose a small off-leash area for canines. But those options rankled longtime dog-walkers on the Coastside, who say they’ve encountered very few problems that require new rules at Rancho.  Montara resident Robin Marymont worried that GGNRA could impose the same dog rules in rural Rancho as it has in urban areas of the park such as Crissy Field. .... The public outreach period for the dog plan is scheduled to run to January. A final version of the plan is expected to be complete by late 2015.  Read article. 

Related -  Boston's NPR news Station, 90.9 wbur, 2/25/12.  "Who's a park for?  Dog owners fight Park Service."  Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California's Bay Area is expanding, quite literally, up next to some people's backyards. And while you might think neighbors would be thrilled to see this scenic landscape preserved, the relationship between the National Park Service and locals is off to a rocky start." ....  "Rancho Corral de Tierra Park in Northern California recently became part of the National Parks System. Now dogs are required to be on leash, angering some community members." (KQED).

Coastsider/Bill Bechtell, 1/19/11. "GGNRA plans to ban all dogs from Rancho Corral de Tierra; Protest meeting Saturday." "On January 14, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) released its draft “Dog Management Plan/EIS.”  Much to the dismay of local residents who have been walking their dogs for years in the open space between Montara and El Granada, the plan’s preferred alternative, Alternative D, calls for “No dog walking allowed unless opened by GGNRA Compendium.  The huge report, 2400 pages and 14.7 lbs, is available on line at About 99.9% of the report, however, has nothing to do with Rancho, which was not a part of GGNRA at the time the report was being prepared (and the transfer of Rancho from POST to GGNRA has still not been completed). Most of the report deals with conditions in Marin County, San Francisco County, and northern San Mateo County (Pacifica).  See Fix Pacifica "GGNRA dog" for related reprint articles.

Note Photographs:  The dog is from Coastsider, the sign is from NPR articles above. The GGNRA superintendent (Frank Dean) is from San Francisco Chronicle/Paul Chinn.

Posted by Kathy Meeh