Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is conducting a planning process to help the park decide how best to manage dogwalking in the park. As part of this process, a Negotiated Rulemaking Committee for Dog Management, representing the diverse interests likely to be affected by a dog management plan, was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior in 2006. The Committee's charter was to work to develop consensus recommendations to the park about where it may be appropriate to allow dogwalking in GGNRA managed lands. 

The final meeting of the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee was on Saturday, October 27, 2007. The summary of that meeting, and of the six preceeding meetings, can be found at the NPS Park Planning website, Negotiated Rulemaking for Dog Management in GGNRA under the Document List link. Also available at that website is the report summarizing the GGNRA negotiated rulemaking process drafted by the team that facilitated the process.

The next phase of the dog management project is the preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) wherein one or more alternatives will contain the consensus agreements reached by the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee. We anticipate that the DEIS will be released for public review in the late spring of 2009.

Additional information on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) steps for the dog management process, including the DEIS, can be found on the NPS Park Planning website, EIS/Dog Management Plan for GGNRA.