Monday, February 29, 2016

Urban GGNRA, clean-up your poop!


San Francisco Examiner/Sally Stephens, 2/28/16.  "A flawed process rigged from the start."

Image result for GGNRA dog picture
Lone human walking your dogs
Image result for dogs on GGNRA land pictures
Just us ready to run, and have fun
"I used to think of the National Park Service as good guys. Not any more. Over the past decades, NPS staff in the Bay Area have run roughshod over local concerns, repeatedly lied to the community and presided over an incredibly biased, unfair public process.

Last week, Park Service announced a new rule outlining where you can walk with a dog in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. No matter what you think about the issue, you should be appalled at the way NPS developed the rule.  ....  The Boards of Supervisors of all three counties with GGNRA land — San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo — have gone on record opposing the plan that doesn’t consider impacts on city parks if thousands of people with dogs are forced out of the GGNRA.

A year ago, I went with a group to Washington, D.C. to talk with Congress about our concerns with the Park Service. Every member of Congress or staffer with whom we talked — both Republicans and Democrats — had their own stories of major problems with NPS and the agency’s heavy handedness with local communities.  There’s a culture deeply entrenched within the Park Service that encourages its unelected bureaucrats to make management decisions with little respect for public input, and then impose those decisions on the park or recreation area, without regard for how they impact surrounding communities.

The GGNRA, created to bring more people to nature, is now forcing large numbers of people out. Dog groups have participated in this decades-long process in good faith, only to find the process was rigged from the start.  For more information on the draft rule, go to www.sfdog.org."   Read more. 
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Sally Stephens is an animal, park, and neighborhood activist who lives in the West of Twin Peaks area.  

Related.  From the SF Dog article link: "Save Our Recreation has put up a new petition, directed at House Leader Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Jared Huffman opposing the GGNRA's proposed dog rule. Sign it now!  Get Your Friends to Sign It!  Share on Facebook and other social media!

Note photographs. Happy dogs from Moonstone Archive/Flickr, Bay Nature/Heather Mack, 4/2/13,"Do the Presidio's new dog walking rules go far enough?"  Man walking dogs from San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate/Mike Kepka, 4/13/14, "Wild West for dog wranglers drawing to a close?" 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's too bad Sally Stephens doesn't post here so that you can send her a sampling of your nasty, dog-hating vitriol. I'm sure the "zealot" bomb thrower will weigh in with his nonsense. Too bad he doesn't love something enough to fight for it.

For those of you who at least remain somewhat objective on the matter, Sally is pretty much right on the money with her account of the facts and her critique of the GGNRA. For those who don't want the facts to get in the way of their preconceived opinions, try not to embarrass yourselves too much with your comments.