That's because unwary pedestrians could step into more than a pile of doggy-doo. They might find themselves in the middle of the long-simmering land dispute between North Salt Lake and Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City public works employees earlier this month removed a trail sign, an adjoining trash bin and bag dispenser from the hill after North Salt Lake officials complained it was on private property.

"We were just trying to inform people coming from the Davis County side that they were in a different county and that different rules applied," said Salt Lake City watershed patrol officer Jim Scott, who placed the sign on the Davis/Salt Lake County line in August.

Some wonder if capital city officials have ulterior motives.

"They can't provide fire and police protection - or even send an ambulance in a timely manner - from their side of the hill. Perhaps, they see this as something they can claim, " said City Attorney for North Salt Lake, D. Michael Nielsen.

Those are the same reasons North Salt Lake cited in a lawsuit, filed earlier this year, asking the court's help in disconnecting 80 acres it owns inside Salt Lake City's boundaries.

Nielsen wrote a letter to Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City officials Nov. 22, saying that North Salt Lake intended to remove the sign unless it was picked up by Dec. 1. He addressed it to both government agencies because it wasn't clear who put up the sign informing dog owners to leash and clean up after their own pets.

"There is no statutory authority under state law to place city regulatory signs on private property without permission of the owner," the letter reads.

Even though it is a public entity, Nielsen writes that North Salt Lake has the authority - as a landowner within Salt Lake City limits - to "protect and do any other thing in relation to this property that an individual could do."

Scott, a longtime Salt Lake City public-utilities employee, says he complied with Nielsen's request because the signs are "expensive" to replace.

"This is the third or fourth sign that has disappeared from that hill," Scott said, adding that the policy requiring dog owners to clean up after their own pets "dates back to [former Mayor] Ted Wilson's administration" in late 1970s.

Scott denied that the new sign and bag dispenser were placed there as a way for the city to mark its territory as part of the land dispute.

North Salt Lake officials have no plans to place their own bag dispenser on the hill.

"Unless your dog does its business right on the trail, I don't think its a problem for people," says North Salt Lake Mayor Kay Briggs. "I'm not sure we're not better off just kicking it into the weeds than having little bags of dog pooh all along the trail."

lorib@sltrib.com