Parks and Recreation Rules - Public Hearing Tuesday, Nov. 12

[michele biscoe]

Dear Fells Dog Owners

Is any one interested in joining me at the public hearing Tuesday evening in Brighton at Communty Rowing, 20 Nonantum Road to ask the DCR what their plans are for designating trails on which dogs are allowed off-leash?

Please see my post to the FellsDOG Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fellsdog/permalink/581664251899932/

Please share!

Last month the DCR released the proposed new regulation at 302 CMR 12.00 - Parks and Recreation Rules.  Not a single one of the recommendations that MassDOG (the Coalition of Massachusetts Dog Owners Groups) submitted was included.

Happy Veterans Day!

Best,

Michele

with Strummer

Somerville, MA

[michele biscoe]

Happy Veteran's Day, Fells Dog Owners!

In 2012 people who visit the Middlesex Fells with dogs participated in a process that lasted almost the whole year to obtain accommodations to enjoy the trails of the Middlesex Fells with our dogs under voice control.  There are over 100 miles of trails in the Middlesex Fells.  We attended at least eight public meetings. We wrote over seventy letters. We submitted a petition with over three hundred unique signatures. How many miles of trails are there where dogs are allowed to be off leash?  That’s right. Zero.

There is not one inch of trail in the Fells for people with dogs under voice control.  Yet, for every two people visiting the Fells there is one dog, and 85% of dogs in the Fells are not restrained by a leash.  These are the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) numbers from a survey they conducted at the Fells.

The codification of a state-wide leash law on DCR properties is bad policy:

• It is unenforceable;
• It ignores longstanding customary use of DCR facilities;
• Moreover, the proposed Park Rules and Regulations provide no guidance as to the process by which users may petition the DCR to designate and post areas where dogs are allowed off-leash.
  

Don't let them do it.  Please submit written testimony by 5:00 p.m. E.S.T. on Friday, December 6, 2013 to Laura Dietz via mail to Department of Conservation and Recreation, Suite 600, Boston, MA 02114, or electronically to regs.c...@state.ma.us.

A state-wide leash law is exactly what the DCR is proposing at public hearings across the state regarding the adoption of a new regulation at 302 CMR 12.00, "Park Rules and Regulations".  Hearings have already been held in South Carver and in Lawrence.  You can attend the next public hearing tomorrow night, Tuesday, November 12, in Brighton at the Community Rowing, Inc., 20 Nonantum Road, from 7:30 to 8:30 PM.  Additional meetings will be held on November 14 in West Boylston and on November 21 in Amherst.  Details about the public hearings are available from the DCR online at http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/public-outreach/public-meetings/.

The Coalition of Massachusetts Dog Owner also has information about what the proposed new Parks Rules and Regulations mean for MA residents who share our lives with dogs: http://www.massdog.org/2013/11/dcr-to-define-and-comprehensively-regulate-parks-and-recreational-facilities-and-their-use-by-the-public/.

This information is also on our website: www.fellsdog.org.

Please consider sharing this information with other dog folks that you know!  Here are two Facebook updates that you can share:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151759708847285&id=121226967284

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fellsdog/permalink/581664251899932/

Thank you!

Best,

Michele