space outside SLC corporate limits. Contact Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker:

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1 Off-leash Dogs, Watershed, and Noxious Weeds Policies Re-visited Unleash 1% of SLC's 70,000 incity acres and 1% of SLC's 24,000 acres of open space outside SLC corporate limits. Contact Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker: Request dog a friendly city, and a balanced off-leash dog policy on nonsensitive open

2 space for dogs of different abilities. Dogs matter. If goat herds were used to suppress noxious weeds in the watershed, then a thisltley problem is created. Telling canyon land owners no cabins while bleating goats graze with glee in pristine Albion meadows would be problematic. Currently, goats and land owners are out. The Olympics were out. Salt Lake City's Water Department's watershed policy is biting dogs un-fairly. Noxious weeds flourish in the canyons. Noxious weed seeds are watered and spread through out Salt Lake County by irrigation ditches. Salt Lake City's Water Department's extreme policies do not support Salt Lake County's noxious weed abatement policies nor reasonable off-leash dog policies. The goal of the Salt Lake County Weed Control Program is to assist property owners in identification, prevention and suppression of noxious weeds within the county. Salt Lake County Government. In the last several years, invasive species have gained recognition as one of the single greatest threats to the biodiversity and integrity of natural ecosystems. Noxious weeds in the west have been spreading more quickly than available funding and resources for adequate weed management can address. Sage Finch Salt Lake County Weed Program 2009 Salt Lake Countywide Watershed Symposium August 26 & 27, 2009 Noxious weed seeds are distributed by Big Cottonwood Creek, Little Cottonwood Creek, Millcreek, Parleys Creek, Red Butte Creek, Emigration Creek, City Creek and Utah Lake water put into Salt Lake County creeks. State law considers the failure to control noxious weeds a public nuisance and allows reporting of infestations in order to prevent their spread. The current list of noxious weeds are the following: Bermuda grass, Bindweed, Perennial Pepperweed, Canada Thistle, Diffuse Knapweed, Dyer s Woad, Hoary Crest/White Top, Leafy Spurge, Medusahead, Musk Thistle, Purple Loosestrife, Quackgrass, Russian

3 Knapweed, Scotch Thistle/Cotton Thistle, Spotted Knapweed, Yellow Starthistle. (Pictures are below.) Watershed protection and noxious weed suppression can co-exist and enhance each other by moderating the current extreme SLC watershed policy used as a planning and zoning hammer against private property rights. Watershed protection and private property rights are compatible. Our canyons need not be chained down with more Federal Wilderness with an out of sight and out touch Congress controlling our local lands promoted by SLC's Water Department. Currently, there is a SLC dog crisis. Mayor Becker fears he won't be re-elected if the Watershed Czar Jeffery Nieremeyer won't moderate the extreme watershed policy. When people complain about the water department to elected officials, they defer to Director Jeff Niermeyer. If elected officials always defer to city employees, then what is the function of the elected official? Rubber stamping all government employee actions leads to the rubber room. Let's re-think really is watershed and dogs. Salt Lake City is 70,656 acres. SLC owns 24,000 acres of land outside Salt Lake City corporate limits, but is unable to find more than 5 acres for offleash dogs. That dog won't hunt. SLC's Water Department spent $500,000 for an out sourced riparian study despite operating one of the most overstaffed public utilities in Utah. Today SLC's 2,666 full time workers plus another 500 part-time works plus outsourced private contractors have been un-able to designate meaningful nonwatershed, non-sensitive open land for off-leash dog areas in and out of Salt Lake City. It's time to re-visit the definition of watershed and dogs. How much has SLC spent to find a sustainable off- leash dog area on non-sensitive, non-watershed lands? Where is the sagacious politician to announce: SLC is dog friendly.

4 Salt Lake City will un-leash 1% of its 24,000 outside city nonsensitive open space acres and 1% of its non-sensitive 70,656 acres in city land as off-leash dog land. That would be about 240 acres of off-leash dog area outside the city and 706 acres in the city. Salt Lake City is square miles (70,656 acres). 1,000 acres of off-leash SLC land makes a dog friendly city. In other words, isn't a 99% NO Dogs Off-leash Policy reasonable and balanced? SLC Water Department's watershed policy is extreme, un-balanced, not dog friendly, and wastes city land resources. Dog owners are a large and vocal constituency in SLC. A politician seeking a balanced land use policy for off-leash dogs on non-sensitive open space would surely be re-elected or elected if not currently in office. Salt Lake International Airport ( SLC Airport Enterprise Fund ) has plans to build a fourth run way over 60 square blocks (600 acres) of sensitive wetlands. Raw jet fuel and burned jet fuel are already churned into the local airshed and local waters. A balanced process will be quickly achieved for a fourth runway at the SLC Airport. Why can't there be a balanced watershed process for the canyons? How can 600 acres of sensitive wetlands accommodate a fourth runway, but the canyons cannot accommodate a few dogs? If it's not real watershed, then why can't some SLC land use accommodate the un-leashables? 100% of Millcreek is non-culinary watershed. Why is it 100% NO DOGS OFF-LEASH? Utahwater.net challenges Salt Lake City to 1) designate 1% of its non-city open space and 1% of it in-city land as off-leash dog areas, 2) to allow goats in the watershed and canyons to suppress noxious weeds, 3) to balance the extreme policies of the Salt Lake City Water Department, 4) to lower water costs to City and County residents, 5) to make the SLC Water Department competitive, 6) to utilize wasted City land and water resources, and 7) to unleash the un-leashables by making Salt Lake City a dog friendly city. Let's make SLC a dog friendly city. Low impact, non-open space, non-watershed land is abundant. Please call to discuss fun and practical solutions to controversial issues. Let's improve Utah together enthusiastically. Contact Jim Garside jgar23@gmail.com

5 SLC Water Department order: No Off-Leash Dogs on non-watershed land. Why?

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