This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
We at FIDOS (Friends Interested in Dogs and Open Spaces) agree with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker that alarming damage has been done to Parley's Historic Nature Park over the last three years. We disagree strongly about the cause.
Mayor Becker's inauguration brought an onslaught of fencing, bulldozing and dumping unequaled in the gulch since the construction of the I-215 beltway. The mayor slings the preservation lingo, but his decision to bring the Pratt trail down into the park has left it maimed and bleeding. A quarter of Parley's north side grasslands now lie buried under switchback fill and pavement, an assault that has received not one word of protest from the anti-off-leash "preservationists."
The 2007 Parley's off-leash resolution, adopted after extensive study and a two-year experimental trial, enacted the council's and mayor's stated objective of creating an off-leash park suitable in scope and vision to our progressive city. As part of this resolution the council wisely called for a management plan to best maintain the open space and natural characteristics valued by all.
Mayor Becker hijacked this process, dismissing the intent of the council and his predecessor, and treating the park as a blank slate on which to make his own distinctive mark. In a pattern that seems familiar, he simply ignored the concerns of a large and vested user group and chose instead to serve his own "vision," and in the case of the park, his own favorite user group.
With no city advocate to protect off-leash interests, Pratt trail constructors felt free to erect fences, interrupt trails and alter use patterns. They soon forced walkers down on the most sensitive riparian areas, and buried the largest north side field under thousands of cubic yards of excavation fill. This dumping zone has remained fenced ever since, an ominous sign to those of us who hate the prison yard model for off-leash parks.
Though off-leash walkers have taken on sole responsibility for park maintenance, policing both their own use and the heaps of trash and litter left behind by other users, the administration has withheld all leadership and support, choosing instead to spend $100,000 on a management plan that the council rejected as counter to their original intent and unworkable. The money spent on these outside consultants would have gone far to reconstruct a more nature-friendly off-leash open space
The City Council has consistently recognized the value of such a space to our city. The administration has turned its back on the off-leash community, ignoring our repeated requests for meetings, and, more importantly, making no effort to help off-leash exercise succeed in Parley's. The mayor continues to promote the fiction that he can find an alternative to the Parley's experience. Though his form-letter response to correspondents proposes 30 acres of off-leash space in the park and at least two water access points, his veto statement proposes only 15 off-leash acres away from water access. The statement further claims that this reduction, from 80-plus acres to 15, somehow doubles county off-leash area. Fuzzy math or doubletalk, you make the call.
Actions speak louder than words. Every action from the mayor's office so far has reduced and degraded the open space at Parley's; has reinforced his position that dogs belong on-leash or inside fenced compounds. If you love your dog, if you value open spaces, it's time to let him know. As we say at FIDOS, bark now or forever hold your leash.
John Griswold has remodeled homes and businesses in Salt Lake City for more than 30 years and currently volunteers with FIDOS to preserve room for dogs to run.