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 the ggrna has a long distance, so that is my reason for it. to continue with what i have prepared here, those of you who visit, you probably know it is really about fog and wind most of the time, and it is normally used primarily by dog walkers, people with their dogs, especially the fourth, and then a smattering of other types of walkers and joggers, surfers, people like that. my concern is that when we have to leave and go to the city parks, the force will be empty, and so we will have the opposite

problem that they were describing, where we have these big empty beaches and in just one or two miles away, we have crowded parks, and in my opinion, that is just a really ridiculous use of resources, so i really urge you to pass the proposal, and i ask that you will come up with a more holistic approach. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. the next speaker. >> that you for taking my comments. the proposed changes would affect my life on many levels. first, on a personal level, i would no longer have a place to exercise with my dogs. on a business level, dog walking business would be severely affected, and my livelihood would be in great danger. as a responsible member, of the committee, i am deeply concerned. i do not even want to imagine what my day-to-day life and

look like if i do not have the ability to go to the park and exercise with my dogs. i think it is important to mention we're talking about 1% of the ggrna. that is a small amount of space to make sure that people have a place to exercise. we need to provide adequate space for them to exercise. we also, however, have a responsibility to preserving be national and natural parks. that being said, i believe we can come up with a better solution, one that serves everyone. the gentleman from the ggrna mentioned that the other areas would be large. that is not true. the alternative leaves a very, very small area for us to walk our dog. if you take into account the number of dogs that frequent these places on any given day in the area that they're going to

allow for off leash areas, once you put that large number of dogs, hundreds of them, in any given time, the incidence is related with people and dogs are bound to go up. there is just no other way to look at it. with regards -- i have seen dogs chasing the birds, and they do fly away, but i would say for me, i am a runner. when i run by the beach, the birds also take off. supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> hello, my name is natalee, and i wanted to say a few things. i am pro environment, pro dog, and permit human -- and pro- human. i cannot stress at combating dog

behavioral issues that only off leash play can give. by adopting a policy, it is inevitable that the congestion will lead to a situation with all dogs. we're putting so much money, time, and effort into a proposal but seems to be based on a lack of scientific evidence. this proposal takes no account of the human impact in the area, like running, people's garbage, cigarette butts, the impact of other animals, and even just the threat to other small animals or the erosion of soil. all responsible dog owners and doc professionals are in favor of allowing this and collecting revenues and fees. we need to have a balanced and fair proposal for santa is the city parks as well f.m. -- as well best -- asd -- as the ggrna. banks.

t -- hanks. >> my name is -- and i live just off of the embarcadero, and i will introduce my dog franklin, a service dog nipper -- who is with me. i did like to give my time to this other person, who can speak very well. thank you very much. >> i am further down on your list. i am a reason dog owner. i got a rescue dog who is 18 months old. my husband and i, 1.5 years ago, and it was a revelation to me to see how much was available to us as elderly dog owners with our young dog. primary to that was the socialization, which occurred taking our dogs -- taking our

dog to the park, where she could in to react with dogs and people. -- where she could react with dogs and people. a certain amount of dog training from down on the peninsula. she has turned into a wonderful, calm, a social animal. not that she was not pretty good to begin with. the smell of urine is overwhelming as the snow melts, and my fear about san francisco, where my dog and my husband and i have roamed in city parks and in ggrna, the dramatic reduction for open space available for off leash dog walking, you're going to be creating terrible problems, because my understanding is there are at least 100,000 dogs in the city. the positive effects of having

dogs at the fort is that i've never seen a homeless encampment, which i have seen in other parts of the city, and i have seen my dogs playing with the ravens, who might hear are attacking swallows. i heard that from a ggrna person. so the ggrna as a huge number of problems, and i think this is the least of their worries, and i really thing that the board has done a wonderful job of stepping in and stepping up to the plate. supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> ok, my name is justin. i am a san francisco resident and am also an engineer. i want to thank you for giving us an opportunity to actually speak about this.

public, it was really not being taken like this at the other meetings. taking a pretty broad look at this document and more of a scientific look as far as environmental impact statements go, i find it totally deficient in scientific data. i do not see the normal scientific data that is in these reports. there are not very many studies that are in the document. there is no base line, from what i can tell, that was taken by the national park service here to truly engaged where we are at. if they were going to enforce the laws and regulations that are currently in place, it would have a totally different starting point that what they look at in this report. before they enforce the rules, we should not even have this report. i encourage you guys to pass

this resolution. thank you very much. supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> i don't have an opinion as i have a well behaved and dog that has gone horseback riding after words on the beach, the san francisco police department has a vicious and dangerous animal unit. even though i suffered a dog attack that left me in need of surgery and my horse with open wounds, i was neither able to avail myself to this unit can have a hearing nor was i even able to be provided with information of whether that dog

had a rabies shot given the fact that my horse had open wounds. the owner of the dog was in sight of the whole thing, he did nothing, did not call his dog, and thinking he did not realize the gravity of the situation, i rode my horse up to the area where he was. he still did nothing after i asked him. i tried to slide of my horse, but the dog was biting front to back. my horse fell and 1,000 pounds felony -- fell on me. the bottom line is, here i am. i love dogs. i love my dogs off-leash.

but if there are no ramifications and i can't turn to a unit that is established to deal with this or turn to city officials to find out if they have rabies, something is wrong. [chime] >> think you for having this hearing. >> if i could call more names, my apologies for interrupting you. [reads names]

you may proceed. >> i am a 42-year resident of san francisco and also a homeowner and an active advocate for our city parks. i am also very supportive of environmental issues. but i am very worried about the proposed proposal to limit dog use in the park. i am here to speak on behalf of my family, husband, children, and grandchildren. god planned activities are very much a multi-generational activity to bind families and bring us to parks. i also wanted you to know that we proudly show off san francisco's dog play areas to our out of town guests. people are amazed that we have this ability to show this kind

of recreation as such a wonderful happy family home and recreational activity. they don't see it in other parts of the country. it is such a beautiful thing. you see people of all ages mingling together with their dogs. it is a wonderful thing. i also wanted to stress what other people have said. the golden gate national recreation area is a unique urban park. it is the urban area that we want to combine with all of these recreational activities. >> next speaker, please. and if the speakers want to move up a little more, that would be great. >> i am a 30-year