Correspondence regarding Dogs in Off-Leash Parks

From: Scott Johnstone Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 12:11 PM To: Mayor And Council Email mayorandcouncil@viewroyal.ca; Saanich Council council@saanich.ca Subject: Why are dogs allowed off leash in this protected forest?

Hi folks,

I'd like to start by thanking you all for leading Saanich and View Royal to adopt ecological stewardship as a municipal priority. That was and continues to be a laudable and important decision.

It's in that spirit that I write to you today, out of concern for Knockan Hill Park.

During hiking season signs get posted throughout the park saying "Ecologically Sensitive Area" and cautioning people to stay on paths. Even in the winter there are "Environmental Stewardship" signs in the park.

I frequently see people walking their dogs off-leash all over the park — initially I assumed they were all just flaunting the bylaw requiring dogs to be on leash throughout the municipality unless in a specifically designated off-leash area, but today I saw a sign at one entrance explicitly designating this as an off leash park.

This designation seems directly contradictory to the idea of environmental stewardship for an ecologically sensitive area.

Even aside from the ecological sensitivity, it's not an ideal location for an off-leash park in the first place — it's a hiking trail, with lots of little bends and twisty-turny bits, so owners frequently don't even have a line of sight to their animals.

At least a few times a week I encounter a dog left to its own devices, and then 2 or 3 corners later I'll come across their owner hastily trying to catch up, or unenthusiastically calling their dog back in a tone that could best be described as "feigning responsibility".

And literally every time I walk through there (daily) I see at least 2 tied-off plastic bags of dog feces either left right on the walking trail, or thrown into the bushes just far enough that even if a good samaritan wanted to clean up after them they wouldn't be able to reach it, and it will have to be cleaned up by more man-hours being allocated for parks staff.

Sometimes I'll even see big logs of obviously-dog feces not even bagged, and just left on the edge of the path. (Most likely because their owner wasn't even close enough to see the dog deposit it.)

But on top of the fact that as a hiking trail it's already unideal as an off-leash park, the fact that it's an ecologically sensitive area under environmental stewardship makes it seem outright absurd to have dogs running around off leash where they can terrorize the local fauna. Just yesterday I saw a dog running way off-path through the bushes, lord knows what it was chasing after. And in general I typically see dogs with no owners in view at least 3 times a week (often multiple times in a single walk).

It's my hope that Saanich and View Royal will consider removing the off-leash designation for this park, and at least for an initial transitional time, put up signs explicitly prohibiting dogs from being walked off leash in this ecologically sensitive area.

I would even support an off-leash park being opened somewhere nearby, in a more appropriate location (maybe a portion of Panama Flats that stays dry year round might be negotiated?). Really it seems like basically anywhere would be more appropriate than a forest hiking trail in an ecologically sensitive area with short-distance lines of sight.

I've addressed this request to both councils and will forward to the parks department of both municipalities as well.

Thank you and kind regards, Scott Johnstone