Parrots & dogs, big & small - Not Allowed!

Every now and then, people come to Laguna Canyon for a hike with their favorite furry/feathered friends. I've begun to tally up the times I pass by the Willow Parking Lot (right near the El Toro/Laguna Canyon Road intersection) and see ladies with their short, little dogs, getting ready to go on a nice little hike (and this despite the signs at the entrance that show that dogs are not allowed in the park). I've also come to marvel at the persistence of a certain gentleman who comes with his red parrot to Willow every so often, trying his luck with our different volunteers, thinking that he'll eventually get the go-ahead to access the trails, or be able to slip on by without anyone noticing he's there.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cynic. For many pet owners who visit the parks for the first time with their furry/feathered friends, it comes as a disheartening surprise to learn that they must leave the latter at home before coming to our wilderness park, or take them to a specified pet-friendly area. But there are also those who resist the rules, who repeatedly come back with their animals, disregard the signs and the docents' explanations, and act as if they have every right to do as they wish, when and where they wish, on any trail, be it fire road or single track.

There are almost endless reasons why taking your pet to our beautiful trails is a no-no: disruption of wildlife (dogs can scare the birds away, leave scents and fecal waste that negatively affects the wildlife in a plethora of ways), risk of injury, disease or death to the pet (ticks, poison oak, snakes, hawks and other birds of prey, etc. all can pose a threat to your domestic animal), risk of injury, disease or death to the pet owner (imagine your dog getting into a confrontation with a bobcat, coyote, snake, etc., bringing home ticks or rubbing against some poison oak and then against you at home, leaving the toxic oils all over the house and your body)...

A good example of what can potentially happen when domestic animals are in uncontrolled, open air, natural settings has been recently observed in Laguna Beach, at Main Beach, and written about in the OC Register on the 10th of March, 2009. Here is a link to that article: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/turly-banana-beach-2330764-hawk-birds. Basically, a man lost one of his beloved parrots to a red-tailed hawk (the very same one, most likely, as the one that I photographed at the gazebo of Main Beach during that very same week, possibly day, see posts below), and is angry at Laguna Beach authorities for not killing the hawk (which, by the way, has EVERY RIGHT to be in Laguna Beach and the surrounding areas).

What we all need to understand is that when we are outdoors in a natural surrounding, there are forces of nature that surpass our own strengths, precautions and laws. Despite the damage that we have done to our natural resources (one which grows in gravity every second that passes), Mother Nature is still alive and will forever claim her right to exist. And every so often, whether we like it or not, we are (sometimes unpleasantly) reminded of our place in the world, of food chains, of natural instincts. The natural world has its own laws, its own timing, its own rythym - to coexist in harmony in natural settings, we have to put the ways of the natural world first.

So please, next time that you consider bringing a pet to Laguna Canyon, or see someone at our park's entrances with Fluffy or Polly, please help and make sure that our natural world is respected to the fullest degree. We have so much at stake here - it has taken the efforts of many thousands of people to preserve the beautiful canyon that we know today - let us not allow it to slip away through carelessness.