SANDPOINT — Since 1994, the city has upheld a dog ban on parks including City Beach, but City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said the city was launching a community survey to determine if the ordinance is out of date or not.

“It’s been many years since we have had a community conversation relative to dogs in the park,” Stapleton said. “Is there a community appetite to open up our parks to dogs in more locations than we currently allow?”

This survey, which opened Friday, will be open online for about two weeks where residents can provide feedback on the presence of dogs in parks and strategize locations for new dog parks in the community. One of the previously discussed locations for the Parks and Recreations Master Plan includes a dog park development adjacent to the War Memorial Field Complex. Many residents have also voiced interest in allowing dogs to return to City Beach.

“From a staff perspective we hear from many people interested in dogs on City Beach,” Stapleton said. “On the other side, there is very strong input that we get regularly about keeping dogs out of the park, not only at City Beach but our other parks as well and dogs have kind of become an increasing enforcement issue this year.”

Approximately two weeks ago the city documented 19 police warnings about dogs in a two hour period. Stapleton said the calls consist of unauthorized dogs in the park, dogs off leash, barking dogs and lost dogs to name a few animal patrol issues.

“When you look at other communities you see that many allow the dogs on pathways on leash only, you see others that allow dogs in grassy areas … and then you see many other communities who don’t allow dogs at all, which is currently the policy of the city other than in the parking lot,” Stapleton said.

Bonner County resident Jane Fritz suggested city council look into lifting the dog ban as a way to manage the geese population on City Beach. Fritz attended the June 3 city council meeting where she brought two DVDs of the 2019 goose capture on City Beach for the council members and Mayor Shelby Rognstad to watch. The DVD is 39 minutes long and last year’s capture and transport process took a total of two hours.

“It (the DVD) will give you a sense of how hard and cruel in my opinion this process is,” Fritz said. “They (the geese) were in a corral, removed one at a time, banded and then thrown in the littlest horse trailers where you would put tack. Transport and the capture is the most stressful part of the operation and injuries as a result.”

Sandpoint recently received a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to relocate the geese during the last week of June with an identical operation to last year where 144 geese were removed. Stapleton said staff has recorded over 200 geese on a given day in the summertime, and the issue has been rapidly increasing over the past three years.

“Geese have been kind of a growing issue for communities around the country,” Stapleton said. “It’s a large number of geese located in a very small area with a growing population and we also see that our e coli numbers in the water are increasing as well.”

She said that allowing dogs on City Beach would go against city code and she has received complaints from citizens about mixing general park areas for activities with dogs. One of the common complaints is about dog owners cleaning and picking up after their dogs.

Previously the city has tried alternative geese management methods such as deploying coyote decoys on city beach. Maintenance staff would periodically move the decoys to prevent the geese from recognizing it as a statue, but after three weeks the geese quickly acclimated to them and began laying beside the coyotes throughout the day.

“Geese are much smarter than people think,” Stapleton said. “Even with our dog handler that comes down to the beach, over a period of time the geese recognize what his vehicle is and they recognize his dogs. What happens is when he comes into City Beach we’ll see the geese take flight or they’ll move out to the water and then they will quickly return within five or ten minutes of him leaving the beach.”

This dog handler has been contracted by the city for the past five years to herd the geese daily as a preventative measure. Unlike other beaches, City Beach does not have any natural predators to deter geese from nesting and overpopulating the area. The issue, Stapleton said, is not eradicating geese all together but controlling the number of geese on the beach.

Sandpoint’s current plan is to relocate the geese by permit for one more year and apply for the euthanization process next year if the geese continue to return. Community input on dog parks in the survey for Sandpoint will be carefully evaluated to see if dogs may become a viable alternative to deter geese in the future.

Stapleton said one option might be loosening restrictions for dogs in the parks on non peak hours and seasons, a type of policy that has been trending in cities with large tourist populations.

“We are working with the appropriate wildlife management agencies on what are the best strategies. While there are indications that suggest having dogs in an area where geese come in could be an effective deterrent that has to be balanced with all of the other activities,” Stapleton said.

You can access the survey here: https://www.opentownhall.com/portals/287/Issue_9060?cookies=detect

Aly De Angelus can be reached by email at adeangelus@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @AlyDailyBee.