[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Green Tag Program and Dogs Chasing Squirrels up a Tree

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Cowles, Macon

I do not want staff to spend time drafting for Council consideration a chasing squirrels up a tree exception to the proposed ordinance revising the Green Tag program until there has been public input and a discussion of the issue, and unless or until Council
 gives staff that direction.


Allyn Feinberg, a member of the OSBT, wrote a very intelligent and pointed email on the questions raised by the suggestion of an exception, and I would like for people to be able to read it, so the email is printed below.












Macon Cowles
Boulder City Council Member





1726 Mapleton Ave.








Boulder, Colorado 80304
CowlesM at bouldercolorado.gov
(303) 447-3062
(303) 638-6884











On Mar 6, 2014, at 10:37 AM, allyn s feinberg <feinberga at comcast.net> wrote:

I saw Council member Cowles’s hotline regarding the Green Tag Program revisions, and while OSMP will certainly respond to his questions, I wanted to comment on his request for staff to draft an exception for dogs "chasing squirrels up a tree”

Because this will be a very time-consuming effort, more direction would be useful. Would it be ok to chase Abert’s squirrels (one of our important keystone species) until they find a tree to run up? Or is it only ok to chase our common brown squirrels? Will
 dogs be taught to recognize the difference between these two types of squirrels, or will we depend on their guardians to inform them and make them return to control if the dog is focused on the wrong target? Why are squirrels so special? What about mice? There
 are a lot of those and only a few people are particularly attached to them as a species. What if the dog doesn’t realize it is chasing a Preble’s Jumping Mouse, an endangered species? Would this require some special training for the dog? And prairie dogs.
 There are certainly too many of them and they are concentrated along our Open Space trails. Wouldn’t it be ok to allow dogs to chase some of them, or even pick off the outliers? What about Magpies? They are pretty annoying. If it is ok to chase them, what
 about jays? Maybe birds in general? They can get away by flying. An additional point that may have been overlooked is that State law prohibits dogs from chasing and harassing wildlife. Wildlife officers and ranchers and farmers are allowed to shoot dogs that
 are chasing wildlife or harassing livestock. This is certainly pretty extreme. Maybe asking people whose dogs can’t be restrained from chasing animals to keep them on a leash is the least restrictive way to protect wildlife. After all, it is required by every
 other neighboring land management agency. 

Seriously, the implications for staff time are significant just to respond to this one line request by one council member. The Green Tag Program has been the subject of years of analysis, evaluation, complaints and revisions. This latest effort is the one that
 was contemplated by the Visitor Master Plan when the experiment of allowing dogs off leash was undertaken, and after there was enough experience to see how the program could work. There have been dozens of public hearings that have included input from people
 whose open space experience has been negatively impacted by dogs that are not under the control required by the Green Tag Program, as well as those who do not want their dogs to be restricted. You have heard that everything is working fine with the Green Tag
 Program the way it is, but that is not an accurate view of what the public has reported during the years this program has been in place. There are a number of things about the program that need to be revised, and the revisions that you are considering now
 is the best balance of freedom and protection that could be devised, given the variety of citizens that use Open Space.

Respectfully,
Allyn Feinberg