Nose Hill Park is a gem but it’s suffering from people’s stupidity
Users must be better at picking up dog poop, and bylaw officers on patrol would help, too
The best behaved creatures in Nose Hill Park are the wildlife. Sure, the coyotes poop everywhere, but lacking opposable thumbs they can’t pick up after themselves. Humans have no such excuse for not cleaning up after their dogs, but too many of them still won’t do it.
Last month, Coun. Sean Chu reported that he’s been flooded with complaints about Nose Hill Park, especially concerning dogs and their irresponsible owners.
Chu told media that the “problem is a lot of people with dogs and they don’t have control of the dog.” So many owners have zero control over their dogs.
It’s not just that the owners stand there helplessly calling their pets’ names while the dogs blithely ignore them. Some of these dogs range so far on their own that the humans aren’t in sight at all. When that happens, there is nobody to stop these animals from charging people or attacking other dogs. Chu thinks more signage would help. As someone who walks regularly in Nose Hill Park, I can tell Chu that it won’t. Signs already instruct people to pick up after their dogs, but the park is filthy. People are ignoring the signs now and they will ignore any new signage that goes up. They have no incentive to comply. The park is also full of signs closing off human-ruined trails for restoration, yet people skirt the signs or knock them over, and walk on those trails anyway.
Chu said that bylaw and city administration will be reviewing the signs that are already up, their proper placement and the provision of maps so that park users will know whether they’re in an off-leash area or not.
Sorry, city officials, but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of solving Nose Hill’s problems. At the top of the list is the scarcity of garbage cans, which leads to those unlovely coloured poop bags strewn along the sides of the paths, ostensibly waiting for the people who left them there to collect them — or not — on the way back to the parking lot. Next, the signs for the off-leash areas are completely confusing. You’ll see a sign that says “Entering Off-Leash Area” so you let your dog loose. Then, as you tramp along the path, about 10 minutes later you see another sign saying “Entering Off-Leash Area.” You thought you were in one already.
What Nose Hill Park needs are bylaw officers patrolling it. They could fine people for not cleaning up after their dogs and intervene in a host of other situations. Like the scene a friend told me about in which a woman was allowing her dog to chase deer. When told to call her dog away, the woman protested, “But he enjoys it.” And when told that the deer were stressed by being chased, she responded with a blank stare.
Bylaw officers could also remind pet owners not to let their chihuahuas and other small dogs tarry far behind them where they could become sushi for any coyotes. The officers could intervene when people damage the natural environment, like the two women I saw last summer picking wild roses.
These gorgeous flowers bloom all over Nose Hill in shades from a fragile pink that’s almost white to a cheery red. Just seeing those roses growing helped lift me out of the darkest moods on my walks through the park last summer. Soon, the crocuses will be up, blossoming beside piles of dog poop. I don’t understand the human need to defile this beautiful prairie spot by destroying its environment and harassing its inhabitants.
Nose Hill Park is a gem, but one that’s becoming tarnished. More signs will not save it from people’s stupidity. Bylaw patrols and a few more garbage cans would help, though.