Under the umbrella of stewardMRV, the Mad River Path Association and other participating community groups will host a community forum about dogs on the trails via Zoom.
It takes place March 22 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Ross Saxton, executive director of the Mad River Path, explained that there are several objectives for the forum including spreading more awareness that people who are not leashing their dogs and not picking up their dog’s poop are threatening existing trails, potential new trails, wildlife, swimming holes, safety of other trail users and their own dogs, inclusivity of trail usage and more.
Another object, he said, is to provide an overview of what the collected groups are doing to help keep dogs leashed and dog poop picked up/disposed of and to gain insight and ideas from the community on what else can be done to get more dogs leashed and more dog poop picked up and disposed of properly.
Finally, a forum goal is to learn about the desires of dog owners who recreate with their dogs in the Mad River Valley and what resources will be helpful to meet those desires.
At the forum there will be discussion of who is participating, who has a dog, who uses the trails and doesn’t bring a dog. Then people will be asked to text into the chat what they love about having a dog in the Mad River Valley. Some of those will be read out loud and people will be asked to comment.
Breakout sessions will follow during which people will gather in small groups to discuss what resources people would like to see in The Valley for dogs owners. The large group will reconvene to discuss this.
A discussion and presentation about local dog laws follows, then another breakout session to talk about solutions.
The link to the Zoom meeting can be found here: https://madriverpath.org/news/dogforum
