Local dogs may soon have new, official areas to be free.
The District of Squamish is eyeing four different spots in town for the location of a new off-leash dog park.
Eaglewind Park, John Hunter Park, Raven Drive at the east side of Brennan Park, and a portion of Ray Peters Trail are being considered, but no location emerged as a clear favourite. Apart from the Raven Drive spot, these locations are already being used as off-leash parks, although not officially.
Fencing costs and conflicts between dogs and wildlife, with other dogs, and with people were issues discussed by councillors and with members of the public who attended a committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday
District staff told council that conflicts between dogs and wildlife were increasing, and a dedicated off-leash area could reduce them. But not every area was advisable.
Ray Peters Trail was first identified by staff as the leading location after consultations with the public, including with members of the Responsible Dog Owners’ Group of Squamish and other parties, but WildsafeBC and the Conservation Officer Service of B.C. said the area was a hot spot for conflicts between dogs and wildlife, and designating the area as off-leash would only make problems worse.
Conservation officer Kent Popjes said that the Ray Peters Trail is potentially one of the worst areas for conflict with wildlife in the District.
“There’s just everything in that big chunk of bush there. There are coyotes, wolves. We have bobcats everywhere. There’s elk in there, deer, bears. The biggest conflicts seem to be with wolf and bears,” he told the council.
A common situation said Popjes, is when a dog first chases after a bear, and then the bear chases the dog back to the owner. In some cases, owners have been swatted at or bitten by bears.
“I certainly would recommend against (it).”
Even so, Coun. Jason Blackman-Wulff said he isn’t in favour of wildlife fencing, or any fenced-in dog parks. As someone who is already using the Ray Peters Trail with his dogs, he said he likes that area because it has good visibility.
“There’s always risk in life, and some people will take that on, and so I think we just need to have a little bit better signage and also better facilities for the existing areas,” he said.
Blackman-Wulff said he’s not in favour of any fenced-in off-leash areas at all, and prefers installing better signage instead.
“The focus should be on responsible dog ownership and training, and so that it’s just expected that you should be able to control your dog off leash, and if you can’t then your dog should be on leash, and that is just a societal expectation,” he said. “My dogs can’t deal with a penned-in kind of area, there’s actually more conflict with dogs.”
Coun. Susan Chapelle said she is also opposed to dedicated off-leash areas, but for different reasons.
She suggested a park like Eaglewind could be used for off-leash dogs only during certain times of day. Rather than fences, she suggested signage and education.
“I think spending money on chain-link fencing wrecks the experience for users of the parks, and that we shouldn’t be setting parks aside for just dogs,” she said. “Our parks are there for walkable greenspace, and it should be an enjoyable experience for everybody.”
Squamish resident Ken Mackenzie told council he supports fenced-in off-leash parks for dogs, but not all dogs should be off-leash.
Mackenzie said he’d been attacked by an off-leash “rescue dog” on a Squamish trail, and “threatened by packs of dogs” that were not leashed.
“I think it’s a good idea to have off-leash areas, that’s great, but should you have a rescue dog in an off-leash area where it can attack other dogs or other people?” he said. “I think the rescue dogs should be treated as a separate category. My extreme approach to this is to ban them entirely. I don’t think we should have them in this community.”
Council previously put away a start-up budget to develop one of these sites and may potentially develop others as more funding becomes available. Mayor Patricia Heintzman suggested trying out a fenced-in area as a pilot project, or looking at a phased-approach in opening up some space in one of the parks, and adding to it in the future.
According to staff, five acres was considered the optimal size for an off-leash park. Parks that are too small may not be used by dog owners.
