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Recent Opinion & Letters Out with the new, in with the old Dog regs are much needed Just give her peace Safety Corner: Plan your own fire escape Letter: Will regs ruin Mt. Misery?

Feinberg: Miserable at Mt. Misery
By Neil Feinberg/ CNC Columnist
Thursday, March 24, 2005

First they came for the mountain bikers
     And I did not speak out
     because I didn't own one of those contraptions.
     Then they came for the Mt. Misery dogwalkers
     and I did not speak out
     because I didn't walk my dog over there.
     However, soon they could be coming after all the dogs in Lincoln
     with a restrictive townwide leash law.
     Who will be left to speak for the dogs?
     Woof, woof.
     The Lincoln Conservation Commission dropped a neutron doggie bomb on the Mt. Misery area two weeks ago when it unleashed new dog-walking regulations for the 230-acre area between routes 126 and 117. The trees were left standing but pretty soon all the doggies will be gone.
     No more will man's best friend be allowed to roam freely through the fields and woods of Mt. Misery. From now on, the commission unilaterally decreed, dogs must be tethered to their owners on a leash. No longer can canines freely follow those various and enticing smells they smell. And their owners now must pick up and carry out their doggie's fecal droppings (aka- poopies). Yuk.
     After announcing the new regulations in a notice in this newspaper, the commission held a public meeting to explain its actions. Commission Chairman Mary Lincoln opened the Donaldson Room meeting by explaining to those gathered - most of whom mistakenly expected that they might still have some input in the decision - that the commission had "wrestled continuously" with this problem for at least the past five years. What problem you ask? The dreadful overuse of the Mt. Misery area by (mostly out-of-town) dog-walkers and their four-legged friends.
     Apparently, those pesky critters (the dogs, not the people) have been damaging the habitat, trampling the vegetation, ruining the shorelines and roiling up the small ponds and vernal pools, scaring tadpoles and salamanders, scaring squirrels and other wildlife, frightening horses, frightening people without dogs, frightening people with small dogs, and pooping everywhere.
     To hear the commission tell it you'd think out-of-town dogwalkers were descending on Mt. Misery in hordes, and that they must be stopped before they multiply. After all, their dogs were creating giant piles of poop everywhere. If this was allowed to continue the name of the place would have to be changed from Mt. Misery to Dog Poop Mountain. Ah, the sweet smell of xenophobia.
     Some in Lincoln would seem to prefer an outcome that discouraged visitors from ever visiting our town. Selectman (and audience member) Sara Mattes prefaced her comments by saying that she'd come "mostly to listen." She then went on to defend the commission's actions, pointedly reminding everyone that the town has "no obligation to dogs" and that "dogs have no rights."
     Mattes lamented Lincoln's presence in local guide books. She complained that some actually recommend Mt. Misery as a great place to walk dogs and said that she considered the lack of a leash law in Lincoln to be "a public safety issue." Perhaps a Lincoln Leash Law is one of the initiatives Mattes will push in her upcoming year as chairman of the Lincoln Board of Selectmen. We'll have to see.
     Concerned audience members, who not only enjoy the exercise they receive wandering Mt. Misery, but the camaraderie of walking their dogs with others, were clearly upset. The commission's decision was "exclusionary," predicated on a "fear of outsiders," said long-time Lincoln resident Linda May. "I don't support" this decision, said former selectman and Mt. Misery neighbor Harriet Todd, who was "very surprised" that the commission reached its decision without first holding a public meeting.
     Most agreed that Mt. Misery was deserted during weekdays and busy on weekends. Audience members offered various compromises: Enforce the leash law only on weekends, enforce it only in the farm field area, offer more education so that owners know the rules. Some even begged and pleaded. But the commission did not budge.
     Its members wore hangdog expressions, not even cracking a smile when chairman Lincoln ingenuously asserted that they weren't banning dogs, merely requiring leashes. But who is going to drive to Lincoln to walk their dog through the woods on a leash? Nobody, that's who. And perhaps that is the desired result.
     In the end, there was no compromise, no backing down. The new rules will be in force, though it remains to be seen if the town has the resources and manpower to actually enforce them. Until then, dogwalkers will have to decide whether to obey or practice some civil disobedience, doggie-style.
     Neil Feinberg is a Lincoln resident and a regular contributor to the Lincoln Journal.
     

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