Though we believe there is a need for more off-leash areas for dogs and their owners in Salt Lake City parks, we do not agree that all of the nature park should be a playground for free-running dogs. If it were, the area would cease to be a nature park because the dogs would drive wildlife away.

The dogs also would drive away people who would otherwise use the park for reasons other than exercising their pets; for example, joggers or birders or people with children who don't want to be harassed by dogs on the loose.

We also worry that giving unleashed dogs the run of the park will pollute Parleys Creek with dog feces and urine. Surely a study should be made of this impact.

That said, we believe that Millcreek F.I.D.O.S. (Friends Interested in Dogs and Open Space) has done much in the past year to make a case for off-leash dog use in the park. The group signed an agreement with the city to take the lead in operating the park as an off-leash dog area on an experimental basis. It raised money and contributed labor to improve trails, provide bags to collect poop, maintain signs, remove invasive weeds and educate the public.

The city administration gives F.I.D.O.S. high marks for living up to its agreement.

Rather than opening the entire park to off-leash dogs, however, we believe that a portion of the park should be fenced for this purpose. That could keep the dogs away from wildlife and people who want to use the park for other purposes, and it could keep them away from Parleys Creek. The balance of the park could be open to pets on leash.

The size of the off-leash enclosure should be determined by the topography of the park and the impact on wildlife. Several acres might be enough.

The administration argues, on behalf of dog owners, that most wild areas elsewhere in the foothills are closed to off-leash dogs. That's true, and there's a good reason for it. Owners often cannot control their animals off-leash, and thus are less able to pick up after them.

For us, the absence of other off-leash areas in wild areas near the city is not argument enough to sacrifice all of Parley's Historic Nature Park. The name says it all.