Taking dogs into protected watersheds will take a bite out of your wallet


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SALT LAKE CITY — It's that time of year when Wasatch Front residents head into the local canyons to hike, jog and enjoy nature. And they like to take a best friend along.

Doggone it, do we love our dogs or what? We take them just about everywhere we go. Jennifer Welsh jogs up and down part of City Creek Canyon most mornings with Bruno, the family's Pomeranian Yorkie. "He's a family dog and he's a good guy, and a good runner," Welsh said.

But Welsh knows Bruno is "not" allowed in certain canyons along the Wasatch Front and she understands why. "I feel like we do need to have a balance. There's got to be a place that is protected and keeps these areas beautiful."

For more than 50 years, Salt Lake City has worked to keep watersheds like the one high up City Creek Canyon pure. However, our dogs can threaten water quality.

Laura Briefer is director of Salt Lake City's Department of Public Utilities. "Dogs have the same pathogens that humans carry," she said.

Those pathogens like coliform bacteria make it difficult and expensive to treat drinking water for contamination. "When a dog's waste gets washed into the streams, they can carry these harmful bacteria and pathogens," Briefer said.

So, no dogs are allowed high up City Creek Canyon and in other canyons along the Wasatch Front.

"Dogs are prohibited in Big Cottonwood Canyon," said Unified Police Department officer David Dow, who works Canyon Patrol. "We catch a lot of people with dogs up here."

Dow stresses that watershed restrictions are not anti-dog but rather pro-clean water.

Since 2014, the Unified Police Department has issued 393 warnings to dog owners who have broken the rules. An additional 56 people have been cited. The fine for a violation is $650.

Dow has caught plenty of dog owners and their humans bathing in creeks that feed into our drinking water sources. "And that's illegal too," Dow said.

It is tough to miss the warning signs on fences and along the side of the road. "A lot of the trails are marked that way too," Dow said.

The same rules apply in Little Cottonwood, Bells, Parleys, Dell and Lambs canyons. There is one notable exception. If you are heading to Park City using the Guardsman Pass, you can have a dog in the car, "as long as they don't stop and continue on through," Dow said.

The restrictions are different in both Wasatch and Summit counties from those in Salt Lake, so you really have to know the rules and where you are at with your dog/s.

So Bruno can't quite go everywhere, and Welsh is just fine with that. In fact, she believes most of the canyon users she knows are aware of the rules and follow them. "I see my neighbors up here (City Creek Canyon) all the time, and so we are respectul of it because we love it and we want to keep it forever."

There are a number of wild places to take your dog outside of protected watershed areas, including the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Mill Creek Canyon, the Mount Olympus Trail and Jordan River Parkway. For information on both protected and unrestricted canyons and trails along the Wasatch Front, check out the Keep it Pure campaign online.

Contributing: Sandra Olney

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