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March 26, 2006 Superintendent Dear Superintendent: I am writing in response to your request for public comments regarding "Dog Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement." Your proposed "Dog Management Plan" is fatally flawed because it does not even contemplate keeping dogs out of GGRNA. Dogs have no business in any national park area whether it is in an urban environment or wilderness area. The mission of the National Park Service is to protect our national park lands for future generations. Dogs are a menace to a healthy ecology, natural areas, native plants, wildlife, and to humans. I don’t see anywhere in your brochure that you even contemplate keeping dogs out of this national park. Why should GGNRA be an exception to the rule in all other parklands that dogs are not allowed on any park trail? Is it because dog owners are the loudest group? There is no good reason why an exception should be made for GGNRA to allow dogs. Your brochure says that a Negotiated Rulemaking Committee representing diverse interests has been appointed to develop a consensus about where it may be appropriate to allow dog walking in GGNRA managed lands. I know for a fact that those who do not believe dogs should be allowed at GGNRA are not represented at all on this committee. Therefore, the committee is flawed ab initio. Even if it is able to come to a consensus and this is dubious at best when the committee is packed with crazed dog owners, it will not represent the interests of those who love our national parklands and wish to see all of them dog free forever. In conclusion, my suggestion is that you add members to the committee who oppose all dogs in GGNRA. We deserve a voice in decisions affecting our parklands. I would also like to add that your brochure was extremely offensive to me and very pro-dog. Did you hire Ocean Beach DOG to publish the brochure for you? Why would you include pictures of numerous off-leash dogs in a national park brochure when off-leash dogs are not permitted in any national park trail? I can only assume it is because the committee is packed and the decision is already made to allow this errant behavior to continue to the detriment of the park primarily but also to me and others like me, whose voices are drowned out by vociferous dog owners, who do not want to see dogs at all on park trails and certainly not off-leash dogs. Sincerely, |