It’s time to spread the word: the Golden Gate National Recreational Area is trying to cut off-leash access by nearly 90 percent at local recreation areas. The GGNRA released a 1500-page proposal to eliminate off-leash dog areas in the Bay Area at Fort Funston, Crissy Field, Ocean Beach and elsewhere in Marin and San Mateo.
We, the dog public, need to fight back! Chair of SFDOG Sally Stephens is leading the charge against these changes. Join Sally and the SF Dog Connectors at Fort Funston Saturday, October 19 at noon to learn more about what you can do to help save the Fort!
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the GGNRA released a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) in September for the proposed Dog Management Plan. They released a Draft EIS in 2011, which would have cut where you can go with your dog in the GGNRA by 90 percent. Public comment on the Draft EIS was overwhelmingly against the plan by a margin of 3-to-1. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution opposing the plan, in large part because it did not consider the impacts on city parks if the GGNRA made these cuts.
Despite this opposition, the GGNRA has essentially not changed their plan. The Preferred Alternative in the SEIS is the same as the Draft EIS with some minor changes. It still cuts where you can walk with your dog, both on-leash and off-leash, by roughly 90 percent.
City Supervisor Scott Wiener, along with co-sponsors Supervisors John Avalos and Katy Tang, have introduced a resolution opposing the GGNRA Dog Management Plan and SEIS and will take public comment on the resolution at a hearing at San Francisco City Hall October 21 at 1:30 p.m. All dog owners against the GGNRA plan are encouraged to attend and voice your opposition. If you can’t make it to the hearing, email the Supervisors directly: Scott.Wiener@sfgov.org, John.Avalos@sfgov.org, and Katy.Tang@sfgov.org. The Land Use Committee is expected to vote on the resolution the week following the hearing.
The GGNRA is a federally-regulated agency but the land of Fort Funston, Ocean Beach and Crissy Field used to belong to the city of San Francisco. The city gave the land to the GGNRA in 1973 in a vote of the people called Proposition F. The City Charter Amendment that transferred the land to the GGNRA included the restriction the land would be given to the GGNRA “to hold only for so long as said real property is reserved and used for recreation and park purposes.” So in theory, San Francisco has the legal authority to take back these lands if the GGNRA stops recreational access and usage of these lands.
The movement against the GGNRA’s proposed action to cut off-leash areas is growing. The Facebook group Save Off-Leash Dog Walking in the SF Bay Area has more than 3500 likes and the most up-to-date information. The New York Times detailed the plan and opposition in a recent article.
The GGNRA will take public comment on this issue until January 11, 2014. We at YDB encourage everyone to write in and voice your discontent with this plan. Dogs are presently only allowed off-leash on about one percent of GGNRA land and the current proposal wants to restrict where dogs can walk on about 90 percent of that one percent of land. This is unacceptable! Let’s save Fort Funston and all the Bay Area’s recreational areas!
Yellow Dog Blog 
[…] The dog management plan isn’t actually news -its been in the works since 2011 when they released the first version of their plan & if you want the whole background story then check out a pawsome Bay Woof article here, or the Yellow Dog Blog post here. […]
[…] Yellow Dog Blog’s summary of the revised plan […]
Thanks for posting the link. I searched for about 15 minutes before I found your blog. Even couldn’t find the link on “Save off-leash access in GGRNA” group page on Facebook???! Come on guys, are we purposely hiding the public comment link?
I’m sorry you’ve had trouble finding the link but I’m glad you found it through our blog! If you can aren’t finding the Facebook group, I have the name of the group as “Save Off-Leash Dog Walking Areas in the SF Bay Area.” Let me know if that takes you to the page. 🙂
[…] The dog management plan isn’t actually news -its been in the works since 2011 when they released the first version of their plan & if you want the whole background story then check out a pawsome Bay Woof article here, or the Yellow Dog Blog post here. […]
Hi! We wanted to inform people about the revised dog management plan, which is currently open for public comment. We were just hoping to spread the word to those who maybe didn’t hear about it the first time or were unaware of the updated plan.
[…] you want to read more about the proposed changes, check out our first post: Save Fort Funston! There is also still time to voice your opinion on the plan by either submitting a comment online […]
Speak out against the GGNRA plan at the public hearing Monday, Oct. 21 at 1:30 pm at City Hall (Board of Supervisors chambers, rm 250) http://www.saveoffleash.com/talking-points-for-supervisors-public-hearing-on-october-21-2013/
I hope a lot of people show up for this hearing! I am planning on attending!
Great summary, Jacqueline. Thanks for helping to lead the charge in our fight for offleash rights!
I think awareness is the key here. Not many people seem to know about the GGNRA’s plan. I’m glad to help spread the word!
Hi Jacqueline, thank you for all you are doing to get the message out. I wanted to let everyone know we have until Febuary 18, 2014 to post a comment on the GGNRA 2013 DEIS/SCEIS at:
http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfmparkID=303&projectID=11759&documentID=55416
Educating folks who are out at Fort Funston with there Four Pawed Pals is problomatic. I had informational business cards printed up in Sept. and am just about out of the third printing of 1500 cards. About 25% of the cards I gave to others to pass out and I pass out about an average of 50 cards a day at Fort Funston. When Goldie and I are out at Fort Funston on any given day 50% to 80% of the people I talk with and take a card did not know anything about the Dog Management Plan and are very thankful to know. I use a map of Fort Funston showing in green the area that the GGNRA’s Prefered Plan will allow off leash dog walking and Red the areas that dogs will not be allowed, ( I spoke with one lady who said it was $50.00 for an off leash citattion a few years ago.) A map is available at Ocean Beach Dog. http://oceanbeachdog2.home.mindspring.com/id31.html
Rocky the moderator of OBD made me the map to be able to show folks just how much off leash land we stand to loose at Fort Funston, he also has maps of Ocean Beach, Crissy Field’s & Fort Baker. Rocky said it first ( A Picture is worth a Thousand Words) and he was right. I put the map in a one quart frezzer bag and I encourage others to download the map they need for talking to people to see a real vissual interpatation of what is at stake. When people see this map they want no part of the GGNRA Plans A through F…The 1979 Pet Policy is the peoples prefered Plan.
Go to http://oceanbeachdog.home.mindspring.com/ and there is a link to a petition asking for Congressional Oversight on the NPS/GGNRA also look over OBD they have current and archived information about this issue…..
Yes on The 1979 Pet Policy
Best Regards,
Tom & Goldie (14)
Tom,
Thank you for the wonderful reply! I agree, educating park-goers is the most important move. So many people are still unaware of the extent of the changes. Thanks also for the link to the map! THAT is what the GGNRA should be posting on their so-called signage at the park. Would Rocky allow me to repost the map and petition on YDB?
Hi Jacqueline,
You are so welcome and I see no problem with using the map of Fort Funston on this page it is the one I use when out at FF or Doggie Disneyland: I received an e-mail from Rocky yesterday and he said it would be fine to use the Fort Funston Map on your blog and he would appreciate if you provided an attribution,i.e.,a link to OBD http://oceanbeachdog2.home.mindspring.com/id31.html where the original source exists.
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For the short time I have been working with Rocky and Suzanne they have always been about getting an accurate message out to as many folks as possible and the Maps are a large part of the message…
Rocky put those maps for everyone to see and copy as a tool in getting out the message, and the map cuts to the chase in a conversation with an uninformed dog walker to where they want to get involved and thank us for what we are doing and accept an informational card and post it on their facebook , email all their friends and family, I often ask folks to network this issue so we do the most we can to get the word out..
Please feel free to join Ocean Beach Dog it is a free yahoo site but you get or can post first hand news at: http://oceanbeachdog.home.mindspring.com/id1.html .
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Right now I think we are going through to use a metaphor ( The Calm Before The Storm) and hopefully we reach more Dog Walkers who will sign the petition asking for congressional oversight of the NPS/GGNRA , a link to the petition is on OBD Home Page at : http://oceanbeachdog.home.mindspring.com/ and write their comments on the GGNRA Comment Page.and we can end up with the 1979 Pet Policy as the law of the land. I use that metaphor because we have had a long streach of time we have gone through where their have been no Off Leash Tickets given out, ($ 50.00 a pop) so there is a sense of complacentcy.
Then with some Dog Walkers who have missed the message boards that were put out late at Fort Funston and really do not give the park visitor the real scope of what is at stake hear at Fort Funston, Ocean Beach, Crissy Field and GGNRA Park lands in Marin and San Mateo Counties.
What I get and feel as someone who goes to Fort Funston daily with Goldie is one of Disenfranchisement because the 4700 comments against the 2011 DEIS should have shut this whole issue down and the 1979 Pet Policy would be the law of the land. The way the GGNRA operates is by their own rules and others we don’t know about yet. This is not a democracy making these choices where we would vote on this issue, like a bond issue for the three bay area counties most affected by this 2200 Page GGNRA DMP 2011/DEIS/SEIS/2013, which when I first started to read the DMP from the GGNRA web site in looking at the choices of A through F plans and how the script went something like this : Plan B has parts of Plan E and Plan E has parts of Plan D and so forth to where it made me mad and then I had a conversation with Rocky and he pointed out when I told him that I thought Plan A was good because it says everything as it is, well he let me know what about the two miles south of Staircase 21 at Ocean Beach, the 12 acres closed off at Fort Funston will they be re-opened? Well then thats when it really sunk in that we need to reject this Three Card Monte style plans A through F and stick with the 1979 Pet Policy that was already veted by Park officals and stake holders back in 1978 and put recreation not restoration just like the enabling legislation by Congress that created the Golden Gate Recreation Area at the front. Fort Funston has evloved to the Best Dog Walking Place in theBay Aera and further by the positive comments I have heard from folks just visting or coming a long way just for this experiance for their dog and family.
When you look at the GGNRA web site plans they are trying to change the focus from GGNRA to Golden Gate National Park and try and feed us a load of SXXX that the word recreation in GGNRA means nothing we are goverend by NPS rules. B.S. These people at the GGNRA need to go back and read the history and the legislative intent when the GGNRA was created and when the City and County of San Francisco deeded the land over to the NPS/GGNRA with certain understandings, Like Dog Walking Off Leash was considered a Recreation ( throw a ball, frissbe, dog to dog play, running with your dog) and of lately considered great for a Healthy Heart . That they would not make any changes to the park i.e. add ons, fences, taking trees and ground cover out etc. There was a reason for these concerns then and now and it was wind driven sand and water erroison with out the ice plants that the Army Corps of Engineers planted in the 1930’s and now they tear it out because they call it an exotic plant. If that ground cover and trees were not their at the Skyline Face of Fort Funston they would be shoveling sand out of the traffic lanes of Hy.35 /Skyline Blvd…..
This is also what I beleive because the GGNRA has streched this issue out time wise and a lot of Dog Guardians I speak with thought the issue was settled in 2011 DEIS, and I have to let them know that is how the park service works and we still need to close the deal with more letters to elected officals and comments on the GGNRA 2013 SEIS Comment Page which we have until;Tuesday, February 18, 2014. (IMPORTANT NOTE: Comments must be entered before11 p.m. Pacific Time/midnight Mountain Time on February 18th ) to do.
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SFDOG, has an archive of mine and other Dog Friendly Folks comments in their files.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/sfdog/msearch?query=Fort+Funston+informational+card&submit=Search&charset=windows-1252
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Fort Funston Dog Walkers http://www.fortfunstondog.org/
This site is a tresure trove of archived documents and studies, my favorite one By Linda McKay is about the 12 Acre Closure Submission at Fort Funston:
http://www.fortfunstondog.org/downloads/anpr-submission
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Save Off Leash
This is another wonderful web site that lays everything out on the first page and is current with Dog Related issues like the GGNRA 2011/Seis2013 DMP…..
http://www.saveoffleash.com/
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On Ocean Beach Dog Dr. Suzanne Valente has condensed the 2200 page NPS/GGNRA 2011 DEIS and The 2013 SEIS Dog Management Plan down to a readable 70 Page comment that takes apart the DMP and proves that the NPS/GGNRA has used Junk Science to prove their points and the NPS/GGNRA do not respond to Freedom of Information act qustions made by Dr. Valente relating to their raw data the Park service uses, there was one comunication she received that they do not have what she wanted and the DOI answered with you can sue us..
http://oceanbeachdog2.home.mindspring.com/index.html
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I still refer to the NPS/GGNRA using Voodoo Science :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_science
What the GGNRA does from what I have read falls into this area an example of that was when the GGNRA used this nugget about a person standing on the Fort Funston Bluff are casting a shadow over the Cliff Dwelling Swallows in their nest that is bored by the swallows into the cliff way bellow the bluff at Fort Funston cliff face which faces the west. First no one is going to get close to the edge and you cannot cast a shadow in a cliff face already in the shadow of the day and a person would have to levatate out past the western end of the continet to cast a shadow in the afternoon on the Cliff Dwelling Bank Swallows…..Flawed/Voodoo Science by Park:
Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud[1] is a book published in 2000 by physics professor Robert L. Park, critical of research that falls short of adhering to the scientific method.
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I am retired and have had more time to spend on this issue since the release of the 2013 SEIS in Sept. and there is nothing better than the feeling of fighting for something you have your heart into and will effect someone you love, in this case it is my wife and Blackie our cat and Goldie our four pawed pal who was waiting for her afternoon at Fort Funston and we went and had a great time.
Today spoke with a few who did not know about the DMP and a some who ask me, when is this going to be done, and according to what I have read the comment period closes on 02-18-2014 and the park service will digest these comments into a proposed rule making out by 2015 and we can comment on that but it is best to get your comments in now and if you forgot or learned about something new or different go back and post your new comments , there is no limit on times just the amount of words 10,000 is the limit for each comment post…President Obamas e-mail posting site limits it to 2500 charactors per e-mail to the White House.
I will be working at keeping this issue at the top of all the dog web sites and if you see me and Goldie at Fort Funston ask for an Informational Card everyone…
NO ON 2011DEIS/2013/SEIS DMP
YES on 1979 PET POLICY
Take Care and Be Well,
Tom & Goldie (14)
Hi Jaqualine The current push is to get Congressional Support from our Elected Represenitives for Congressional Oversight of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area below is what I sent to the Groups.There is a link on there to (Congress Can Fix This) with another link to the letter Dr. Suzanne Valente sent to Rep. Bishop and Local represenitives citing the resons Congressional Oversight is needed at the GGNRA/NPS/DOI on the Congress Can Fix This psge.
Thank you again for keeping this page open…
Tom & Goldie (14)
Members of Ocean Beach Dog at Fort Funston
http://oceanbeachdog2.home.mindspring.com/id31.html
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Monday March 10, 2014
Good Morning All Dog Group Members and All Independent Dog Guardians:
03-10-14
OBDOG///SFDOG///FamilyDog//// K-9SAFARI///YellowDogBlog/// and all others Please pass this message on to other indiviuals or Groups you do not see on the To Address Header.
I know we have a Clean-UP Campaign being organized this week, Which is Great, but we all have some Unfinished Business.
The link is to the OBDOG page Congress Can Fix This Page http://oceanbeachdog2.home.mindspring.com/id23.html This is where you can click on Dr. Valente’s letter to learn more and encourage everyone who hasnt already called all of thier Senators and Congressional Reps. to do so….
This is a Reminder for those who have not reached out to thier elected officals by e-mail or phone . Please take a few minutes and ask for the support of Congressional Oversight of the GGNRA….
Ask for Congressional Oversight of the GGNRA/NPS/DOI and for thier Rep to please contact Representative Rob Bishop, Chairperson Subcommittee for Public Lands and Environmental Regulation and support the Needed Congressional Oversight of the GGNRA/NPS/DOI
Tom & Goldie (14)
http://oceanbeachdog2.home.mindspring.com/id23.html
CONTACT: U.S. Representative Jackie Speier, (202) 225-3531
U.S. Representative Jared Huffman, (202) 225-5161
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, (202) 225-4965
U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo, (202) 225-8104
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, (202) 224-3553
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, (202) 224-3841
If you’re not sure who your Congresswoman is, go to http://www.congress.org and enter your zip code.
Save Fort Funston!