Parks Officials Urge Dog Lovers to Bag It

By Bill Lindelof, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jun. 22–Here’s the scoop: Coming to the Arcade Creek Recreation and Park District, an effort to get pet waste off the grass.

New plastic-bag dispensers will be installed at all district parks. The dispensers are designed to hold plastic grocery bags for dog owners to use when picking up after their pooches.

Jane Steele, park district administrator, said many dog owners don’t clean up after their animals.

“I haven’t stepped in it,” Steele said. “But I have watched people walking their animals without carrying a bag.”

The installation of the doggy-bag stations is a low-cost effort to keep parks clean, said Janet Parris, public education and outreach coordinator for the Sacramento County Stormwater Quality Program.

“Park districts have contacted me to see if we can help them (set up) pet waste bag stations,” she said.

The dispensers are also part of an effort to keep the watershed safe. Studies indicate that animal waste is a major source of fecal coliform in Sacramento-area urban runoff, according to county officials.

Runoff from rain and sprinklers can carry dog waste left in parks and along trails into storm drains and waterways.

In a separate, unrelated effort along the American River Parkway, plastic-bag receptacles already are stocked with “mutt mitts” — free plastic bags that officials say are making a difference in the amount of dog waste left in the parkway.

The dispensers planned for Arcade Creek Park and Recreation District’s parks are a pilot pet-poop program. But if it works, the pet-waste bag stations could spread throughout the unincorporated county.

“We want to see if there is noticeably less park waste in the parks and if there are other districts that would want to participate,” Parris said.

The pilot program is expected to run through the summer months. After that, the effort will be evaluated as to whether the public stocked the stations with plastic bags and whether dog owners used them.

With more than 254 parks encompassing 23,000 acres in the unincorporated area, officials wanted to devise an inexpensive way to make bags available to dog walkers.

To that end, the county will pay for the dispensers through its Adopt-A-Waterway program, which uses revenue from business sponsorships to pay for stormwater pollution prevention activities.

Park users will supply the bags. Officials hope that county residents will bring their used plastic grocery bags to stock the dispensers.

The stations will have signs that ask park users to clean up after dogs, keep pets on leashes and contribute bags. The sign also notes that a county park ordinance prohibits leaving pet feces in parks.

The first dispenser has been installed in the district’s Hamilton Street Park, at Hamilton Street and Myrtle Avenue.

Three will be installed at Hamilton Street Park, near Madison Avenue and Interstate 80; two at Oakdale Park, Myrtle Avenue and Polk Street; two at Arcade Creek Park, near Garfield and Madison Avenues: and one at Holyoke Trail, near Myrtle and Walnut.

Parris said Junior Girl Scout Troop 1308 will help install the first stations. The program kick-off is scheduled at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Hamilton Street Park.

Steele, the park district administrator, said the effort should work.

“It will be easy,” she said. “The dispensers will be at practically every entrance to the parks so (they) will be visible. And I think people want to do the right thing.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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