Columns:: Inside scoop: New ad campaign reminds forest park visitors to respect others

since 12/15/98

Columns::August 26, 2002

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Campus News

Inside scoop: New ad campaign reminds forest park visitors to respect others

By Helen Fosgate
hfosgate@smokey.forestr.uga.edu

Several mornings a week, Athens resident Tickey Long and her friends meet at Oconee Forest Park, the 60-acre forest behind Lake Herrick, for a cool walk among the sheltering 100-year-old trees. She and a friend, Mary Duke, have been coming here for nearly 20 years. They know the trees and trails intimately--and many of the park’s visitors by name.
Long often brings her dog, Ace, an eight-year-old Newfoundland. The women love the healthy bustle of visitors, which now total more than 80,000 a year. Lately though, they worry about a mounting problem--rankling piles of dog excrement left along the park’s roads and trails. It’s a problem park manager Dan Williams has been dealing with for years.
“We’ve been debating for a while now whether to close Oconee Forest Park to dogs,” says Williams, a forest resources manager with UGA’s Warnell School of Forest Resources. “They finally had to do that at the Botanical Garden. We hope it won’t come to that here.”
Despite canines’ one obvious drawback, Long believes dogs are an asset to the park. “Dogs bring people together,” she says. “They give people an excuse to speak and get to know each other. We don’t want to see the dogs go--just their mess.”
In June, Long and Duke donated money to provide “poop receptacles” throughout the park and Mutt Mitts, biodegradable plastic bags that make it convenient and sanitary for owners to pick up after their dogs. With a few drops of chemicals added every few days, the feces and plastic wrappers break down in the receptacles. After composting, park workers can use the finished organic matter to fertilize ornamental shrubs, flowers and trees.
“They use similar disposal systems in many big cities and parks across the country,” says Williams, who has already set up half a dozen concrete waste receptacles and Mutt Mitt stations throughout the park. “If people will just use them, the park will be a more pleasant place for everyone.”
The “Scoop that Poop” campaign is part of a larger public education program begun at the forest recently to remind visitors to respect the park--and other visitors. Colorful new signs posted along roads and paths politely remind bikers and hikers to “share the trails,” “scoop that poop,” and “do the right thing.”
“The vast majority of visitors feel it’s a privilege to use this wonderful park,” says Williams. “The posters will remind those who don’t know--or those who forget--what’s expected of them here.”

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