Dogs don’t damage trails that much: Citizen claims district research is bogus

Draft plan for trails cites a study that says dogs make significant impacts on natural vegetation within six metres of trails.

By Gagandeep Ghuman

Is West Vancouver biased against dogs? A West Vancouver citizen fears a recently completed draft trail plan has used flawed research to justify bias against dogs on West Vancouver trails. The district staff recently provided the council the draft plan for trails, the final chapter of which states that research by Metro Vancouver shows significant impacts on natural vegetation within six metres of trails caused by dogs.

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West Vancouver citizen Paul Hundal claims that is a complete misstatement of facts and there is no such research done by Metro Vancouver.
“West Van staff is telling the public in their Trail Plan that dogs damage the natural environment up to 6 metres (18 feet) on either side of a trail. I firmly believe that this is nonsense. People do more damage than dogs. Contrary to the statement of the staff in the Trail Plan there is no academic support for this statement. My concern is that the staff will be relying on this assertion to justify excessive restrictions on dogs when planning future trail use restrictions,” he says.

Hundal claims the Metro Vancouver research being quoted by the staff was in fact written by one person who Hundal believes was biased against dogs.

Hundal claims the Metro Vancouver research being quoted by the staff was in fact written by one person who Hundal believes was biased against dogs. Hundal says Metro Vancouver was preparing for a Dog Symposium about 15 years ago and mentioned this citizen report in support of restrictions it was promoting. He says he was one of the few people who actually read the report that is being quoted as research.

“The citizen report was written by a person, who I believe had a bias against dogs and used a flawed methodology. He examined the Bridgeman Creek Trail, used currently by dog walkers, north of Hwy 1’s Lynn Creek bridge. He looked at compaction damage around the trail. He assumed that all compaction and damage off the trail was from dogs. He then determined that damage was seen up to 6 metres from the trail, which is a lot. However, he was making a completely bogus assumption because throughout my childhood we used to ride our BMX bikes throughout those very trails,” he says.

Hundal says by calling the personal biases of one person as research, it was being implied that the it was completed with an acceptable standard of academic rigor.

“I am concerned about how these assertions about damage from dogs will inform future planning. We could see many of the off-leash dog trails used by residents now be faced with future restrictions as a result of planning under this Trail Plan. I believe the council should direct the staff to remove this extreme statement, about damage from dogs, from the Trail Plan, unless sufficient academic support can be found for this claim,” he says.

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