Over the winter, members of the local horse community and Go Dog North Shore met to discuss shared use of the Gunflint Horse Arena and Dog Park in Grand Marais. Although it is a long-range goal of Go Dog North Shore to have its own separate space for a dog park, for now, the groups will share the space with the understanding that dog owners who use the park will provide clean up. Toward that end, Go Dog North Shore is hosting a spring clean up at the Gunflint Horse Arena and Dog Park on Saturday, April 2 from 10 a.m. until noon.
Volunteers are asked to bring their own work gloves and shovel if possible.
Cathy Quinn of Go Dog North Shore reminds dog owners that members of the horse community have invested a lot of time and money into the horse arena so they take a lot of pride in the space. “As they should!” she said.
Quinn said that the park has proven to be a very important resource for dog owners too over the last few years. “It’s a great space for people to exercise their dogs off leash safe from traffic and predators. It has also become a valuable resource for folks visiting the county who like to travel with their pets,” she said.
As word spreads about the availability of the park, it continues to get more and more use, especially from July into September. Quinn said unfortunately that led to an unacceptable amount of dog waste left in the park.
“This was particularly frustrating to members of the horse community who recently invested more time and money into improving the arena footing,” said Quinn.
The park is equipped with a waste bag station and garbage can and visitors are asked to clean up after their dogs. However, it doesn’t always happen.
The result of the winter meeting with members of the horse community, Go Dog North Shore agreed to coordinate a group of volunteers to clean up the park on a weekly basis. “The bottom line is, dog owners need to do a much better job of taking care of the current space,” said Quinn.
Go Dog North Shore is looking for volunteers to spend roughly 30-45 minutes once a month to do a thorough inspection of the park. Tools and supplies will be provided if you don’t have your own. The group asks dog owners to please consider investing a little time in this valuable community asset.
For more information about the clean up or about Go Dog North Shore, contact Quinn at (218) 370-9494 or via email at quinn@boreal.org.
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