Hello,

This very issue has been one of the major underlying themes of the
Parksville-Qualicum Beach BC Brant Festival over the last 14 years. It is an
issue which both volunteers and professional biologists have wrestled with
every single spring migration. Our experience has been that signs do not
work. Polite intervention does not work. Community education does not work.
Large scale media awareness campaigns do not work. Nothing that we tried in
13 years seemed to have much of an impact upon the choice of dog owners
(backed up by long term disturbance data), as to how to behave in a
designated wildlife management area. But, in year 14, we seem to have
finally found something that gets their attention. Due to a continuing
decline in the number of spring staging Brant using the Parksville-Qualicum
Wildlife Management Area, and the actual physical assaults to a volunteer
and a biologist by dog owners last season, it was decided to completely
close Parksville Bay to all dogs from March 1 to May 1, with a $ 230. ticket
for those who ignore the closure. Armed with this, provincial conservation
officers, resource management officer trainees from Malaspina University in
Nanaimo, employees of the Nature Trust of BC, Brant researchers, and other
volunteers, can now forward reports to the authorities so that pet owners
who ignore the ban can recieve a ticket. With two newspaper reporters and a
tv crew in tow, the first weekend of the dog ban saw some very angry people
receiving tickets. There was the expected public outrage, angry letters from
the "dog rights lobby" in local papers, but the tickets kept coming. Now,
six weeks into the project, I am very happy to report that we are only
seeing about 1 violator every other day. And the disturbance data for this
particular section of the wildlife management area is encouraging.
Discussions have begun about extend the ban to the entire 20+ kilometers of
shoreline for next season.
We have not abandoned the softer approach, and are continuing large scale
efforts at public education, media campaigns, community outreach, etc, but I
sincerely wish that we had not waited 13 agonizingly frustrating years to
add some teeth to the program. With nearly a third of the west coasts Brant
population staging in the Parksville-Qualicum area, it was probably a poor
decision not to.
best of luck,
Guy L. Monty
Parksville, BC

----- Original Message -----
From: "Len Mandelbaum" <lmandelbaum at olympus.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 9:54 AM
Subject: Dogs on Beaches


> Tweeters
>
> Our Port Townsend Audubon group (Admiralty Audubon) is dealing with the
> issue of dog/owner harassment of diminishing species such as brants,
> Heermann's gulls, oystercatchers, etc on the beaches bordering the Straits
> of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet. Complicating the matter is that
> several jurisdictions (DNR, Ft Worden, the Port, County, City of Port
> Townsend,) have relevant jurisdiction as well as the existence of
> considerable private beach ownership.
>
> We are interested in positive and creative local/state government
> approaches to the beach related issue. We are also interested in informed
> opinion as to whether strong educational programs and requests to put dogs
> on leash short of regulatory requirements may have effect (where
regulatory
> power may be in question). Finally, we may be asked, in negotiations, to
> limit any signs to the migration periods. There are costs and benefits
here
> as well. Any informed suggestions?
>
> Len Mandelbaum
> Conservation Chair, Admiralty Audubon
>