battle lines. i think we have an opportunity to educate our community, put up some better signage, fencing, and so forth, to reach the goal. commissioner wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is lisa. i and disabled, and i do not have a dog. last year, i had to undergo grueling medical treatments, and even coming year is an effort. i am grateful for getting a chance to speak. for both my medical and physical health, i made a point to visit as i could. getting out of my social isolation was essential. i knew that watching dogs play would bring me joy. i know that counting on an occasional extroverted dog, i would get a few pet. given my physical state and

being a woman, i wanted to be safe. this park, with its open air format and that natural comings and goings of off leashed dogs was a perfect match. after not showing up there for a couple of days, a voice called out to me, "how are you doing? i have not seen you in a few days." i had no idea who was talking to me. she was a professional dog walker. i quickly learned that there is a vibrant community and that i had become part of it. she has continued to keep tabs on the and has continued to this day. she has driven me to doctors' appointments and has become part of my social network. i have never met such a careful and self policing community. one woman told me that she knows if she collapses on the trail due to her health condition, as has happened once before, she and her dog would be taken care of by the people

there. finding this community has been essential to my well-being, and i do not want to see it disappear. this is the area i have come to know, and i wanted you to know about it, too. think you for your time. commissioner wiener: 80. >> good afternoon, supervisors. this is part of the national park service, and their mission is to preserve the wildlife and to provide for the enjoyment and leave it unimpaired for future generations. ggrna is well worth preserving. it is home to the archaeological sites. it is also part of the golden gate biosphere reserve. one of about 300 such places in the entire world. this diverse species and these reserves represent resources which at the end of the day helped humans, like us, at the

top of the food chain continue to live on the planet. ggrna is home to over 12 other plants and animals, some of which are endangered or rare, and this is more than any other national park in the entire continental united states. it serves as an economic engine. it attracts over 13 million visitors per year to san francisco, who spend lots of money in our city, and all of this income generates back to san francisco, as the ggrna is not there as a profit and a deep. much of the budget is from tourist dollars, so these are not to be sneezed at. ggrna is asking for help while serving a growing population and providing a positive visitor experience for everyone.

ggrna's proposal could hurt san francisco if our own city continues to fail to grapple with the estimated 90% of unlicensed dogs in the city, it fails to collect $2 to $5 million in licensing fees, or fails to enforce regulations. thank you. supervisor wiener: 80. hi. >> hi, supervisors. i am arthur feinstein, a chapter of the sierra club and on a conservation club. you have been told that there is no problem with off leash dog walking on the beaches and ggrna because there is no impact, so i just want you to make a logical leap from what i tell you to seeing how the impact is happening on our beaches. this is a recent issue of the

national wildlife federation, where they're talking about the loss of wetlands and other habitat for birds, in particular, they're talking about shorebirds. these are normally small things, two ounces, and even the big ones are four ounces. they are a small way, but they are large, and one can travel 7,000 miles in a few days. this is 6 ounces. where does all of that energy come from, eight days not feeding? whoa, they do something that is very miraculous. they actually absorb their digestive tract, so a the end of the day, when they land on places like the beach, where lots of these migratory birds come down, they have lost their digestive system, and the first thing they do is start feeding on soft tissue things like worms in the mud so they can start rebuilding with a protein from those critters their digestive systems. if they are stressed and have to

move a lot, they died. they do not die right in front of you, but they died later on down the road because they will not have a chance to build their digestive system to start building that their systems and the food energy is that they need, so do dogs have an impact off leash? all of us have seen the dogs rushed after these shore birds, and the birds fly off. it is very great. it is very exciting to see these birds fly back and forth when the dogs chase them. that is an impact. the results in the death of many of those birds down the road, so when you say that there is no impact, please consider this. thank you. supervised wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> i am amy, and i am a share for the golden gate recreation area. i served on the advisory committee and in 1979 helped to put the dog regulation as it exists today, and i was on the

recreation and park commission for 12 years in the 1970's and 1980's. this park did not have the usual studies that are done before a part is made. this park was a political party in the sense that at the sierra club, i was working with them, and we decided that we needed to get a park, and we had better get it now, so the studies were not done. if that is why in 1979, a lot was not known about the park, and so the commission said it would be ok to have this brought of the issue areas. and so that is partly how this came about. we have learned a great deal since 1979. the population has increased. the pressure on these park lands has increased. all of us go back to when the park was started in 1972. among things that happen were the removal of the motorcycles,

the removal of hunting from some areas, and the removal of sand mining by the recreation and park department on ocean beach. all of those things were not going with having a national park. it is not just the endangered species. it is also the economical -- ecological relations of all the species to each other and the composition of the various small areas of species and habitat and wildlife that exist in this park because a lot of the land here has b so there are fractured areas. specifically though, when we come to the idea of an urban recreation area, -- >> -- supervisor wiener: thank

you. thank you for coming, and i thank you for your work. >> i took a snapshot of what was going on. this is sunday, a nice day in the park. you notice that most of the people are walking on the path. here is another view. you see most of the people walking on the path, not off of the path. in you will notice that the offenses are not up. there are no signs warning you. still, most of the people are on the path all of the way up to the top of the hill. this is how we recreates when we have dogs, and when we have seen years, we need the 40 minutes of work to get us down and back to live a long life. here is another view that would give you an idea. so i just want to say, if it is not broken, do not fix it. there is nothing here going on that the impactful to the environment. there are not even signs and

fences. i have been doing this for 25 years walking over year. there was something that was there that is gone because of the sewer project, the pipe. all of the offenses. do not go here, do not go there, so i just want to educate people on what we're creating with a dog is. this does not a very dangerous to me. thank you. supervisor wiener: 80. next speaker. >> i am a third-generation san franciscan and work with the nature conservancy along with other groups. i am now retired, but my entire career was dedicated to the restoration of california national resources. -- natural resources. i am here to voice my

opposition on the dog management koran. dense urban areas like san francisco are not what cash strapped agencies should be delivering most of their resources. we all know the people in all of their diversity and pursuing all of their activities recreation or allies impact the natural environment wherever they are. because of this, agencies should focus their efforts on making the urban environment as enjoyable for as many people as possible in order to avoid the much greater impact that occurs when residents, feeling the pinch of restrictions, flee to the suburbs or rural areas where natural habitats are is inevitably more tax and therefore more vulnerable. ggrna's proposal will lead a miniscule one-tenth of 1% of lands available to them available for off leash dog walkers. this is not only in violation of

the 1970 policy, but it is blatantly unfair and will create huge enforcement problem for the city when numerous dog owners to arrive to walk their dogs in city parks. i urge you to do the right thing and urge you to vote for the resolution before you today, and thank you so much for allowing this to public hearing which was denied to us bite th-- by the ggrna. supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> in 2001, the citizens and buys three commission sat poised to eliminate the 1979 pet policy entirely. that policy was derided as the extensive public hearings. over one dozen people showed up to protest that, including nine of the 11 of your predecessors

on the board. the vote was not taken that night, but subsequently, the park service announced that the 1979 pet policy had never been valid, and they start putting up leash signs in places where off leash dogs had been allowed. people were getting ticketed until three people fought their tickets, and the district court judge ruled that in fact in 1979 that policy was a legal policy and is the operative policy. i am talking about all of this to point out that there is a pattern here. there is very strong motivation on the part of the park service to eliminate dog walking entirely in the ggrna. there was oscillate push in congress to get the word "recreation to be removed, ostensibly for fund-raising issues, but if you can do some

research, you will find that they do a whole lot better already than other areas. i urge you to take a strong as possible a stand against the park service actions on this. thank you very much. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> thank you. my name is andrew moore, and i want to thank you for having this meeting. i have lived in san francisco for over 35 years. i am a senior, having recently retired from my career as a building contractor. i am a passion its environmentalist and also a dog owner. i have always enjoyed the up that san francisco is considered a dog friendly city. for all of the years that i have lived here, i have hiked with my dog at least twice a day. this is my primary form of

recreation, and i enjoy it immensely. the ggrna now proposes to cut back in areas proposed for dog walking even more than they already are. i strongly objected to the alternative for the dog management plan and just as strongly request that you support the resolution before you today. one other thing i would like to say, this is not yellowstone. this is not in alaska. this is 49 square miles of highly dense urban area with a small parking area attached to it. thank you. supervisor wiener: -- small parking area attached to it. -- park area. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> we are the nation's only

organization focused on protecting and enhancing the national parks across the country. to assist your offices in making some informed decisions regarding this management plan, the first request that to actually spend time with our organizations and other user groups that were listed in second and third slide by the superintendent. it is easy to be sucked into the hyperbole. there is an entryway for your concerns. but by denying the park service ability to enforce regulations, there is no law, no order. it is unsustainable for the humans to visit and you call this place home. for example, at the field, 67% of the dog walkers failed to put their dogs on leashes, and if we

are talking about human impacts, guide dogs users inc., there was a letter according to a 2003 survey, there were incidences of interference from unleashed dogs, policing is visually impaired individuals in danger. i say this just to educate you all on that there is a diversity of constituents in users here. this is something we all need to consider. recreation and parks recognizes but there is a problem. are we going to prevent the park service from carrying out their mission? ggrna. they may have the nomenclature, and the key word is national parks. it was not to bring a city park experience or a county park experience or even a state park experience. indeed, it is a national

wildlife refuge, home to more species than others combined. it is a repository. the museum has almost 5 million items, the second-highest in the national park service, so it is a treasured natural resource, so in the context, the national park service is trying to accommodate dogs. leashed and unleashed. we are talking about urban parks and urban settings in zandt and cisco. so i would just like to say, please of the park service to do their job and help them. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. ashley, before you start, if i could call the next series so people can line up, and then you can begin could >> yes, sir. >> -- supervisor wiener: anderson, and -- ann [reading

names] george, susan, linda, and betty. think you, sir. >> thank you, scott. i want to thank all three of our supervisors for being here today. i think the details are yet to be known, but i do believe that the report, as eric, supervisor

mar, relayed to us earlier, there have been no attacks by dogs in that area. taxation without representation. where is the representation? i mean, how low will we go in taxing people who lived in this area and wasting, squandering our tourist dollars here in the city? i can tell you, if we continue to go out the city coffers in this manner, there will not be much left. we have a menacing dogs statute

already on the books. the signs arei believe it is a f enforcement, and if people did not want to obey the law here in san francisco, they will be cited, and they will be advised. i believe this is a no-brainer and that the point is largely muted. i would like to thank everyone for coming, and i would like to remind folks and how they can go to the internet and go to project home, one word, project home. thank you very much. i love you, and do not vote for

the charade. supervisor wiener: we will go to the next. >> my name is -- and do we get the four minutes? we have a presentation. ok. good afternoon, supervisors. we're both commissioners on the animal and welfare control commission. we heard speakers in public comment about how limiting the off leash areas on federal park land would lead to inadequate exercise and behavioral problems for dogs. the commissioner and i decided to photograph the areas to see for ourselves. we came to this situation with no preconceptions. we have been dog owners, but we presently do not have dogs.

three years ago, i was doing a petition, and part was to ask what county there were from, and less than half were from san francisco, so the usage of the fort, that is the only study i know to determine who are the dog walkers there. >> has plenty of space for dogs. sorry. the bad news is that it is underutilized and poorly distributed. there are properties for exercising dogs, and these of the underutilized and sometimes empty.

we are going to show some slides, because we took photographs, and as he continues to talk, i will show slides, and we did not find many dogs. supervisor mar: could you say when you were there? >> we were there from 2:00 until 4:00. supervisor wiener: if so is the refrain from conversation, thank you. >> we wanted to see what was available, so we wanted to see for ourselves. according to my count, there is 120 acres of off leash areas.

seattle, boston, and another combined, a lot of acres. we found acres of park land that were empty. we believe the best were the ones that were fenced with a double gate. they respect the fact the only inside were dogs allowed off leash. many people about their dogs to run off leash, because, as they told me, everyone does it come and it is not in force. we also noticed that other areas were always against and defined. we think the dpa's should also be fenced in.

ok. yes, we have time. supervisor cohen: my question is, why are they not using these in san francisco as much as they are a usingthe ggrna land? why are the sf facility so empty? we had no idea what we would find. we get a distribution problem. there are new better coming korea we have no duty to provide space or out of county residents. our taxpayers should not have to pay for that, and we would really like you to investigate the distribution issue before you draw any conclusions. we believe this can really be looked at.

supervisor cohen: distribution of could >> we went to all of them, and they are very empty, so i think that ggrna is a beautiful place, but that is a problem because we have a lot of empty areas that are not being used, and people do not need to drive to the gger -- ggrna. they could go locally. supervisor cohen: thank you. supervisor wiener: next speaker. you can just come up. >> thank you, supervisors, for putting this together. i have been here for over 30 years and have been a first-time

dog owner for the last six years. i am concerned about limiting at ggrna. i take my service dog moly with me just about everywhere i go. we usually have two trips a day, and those are her most fun play times, when she gets the most exercise, and my tax dollars are at stake. it is part of what i pay taxes for, and believe me, i pay a lot. that is all i have to say. thank you very much. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. i just want to acknowledge its supervisor david campos has joined us. welcome, supervisor. next speaker. >> hello, my name is jan scott, and i live in the sunset district, and i have been taking

my children to the beaches before the ggrna was even involved in this situation. i have a job on the beach with my various dogs. this is my most important recreation and probablymy most pleasurable activity. i would like to use the time to address the question of the commissioners as to why people go to the ggrna instead of the city parks, and my particular reason is that most city parks are small. they are little areas, at most one quarter or half a mile long, so it is difficult to get a long jogged in it in those areas unless you want to just run around in circles, whereas run around in circles, whereas the ggrna has a long distance,