For the second time in five months, the Railyard Dog Park in downtown Denver is closed because of piles of dog poop not picked up by pet owners. And this time weather could keep the park closed for an extended period.

“If it snows as much as it could snow, it might be a couple of weeks before we can reopen,” Denver Parks and Recreation deputy director Scott Gilmore said.

The dog park at 19th and Little Raven streets closed Wednesday after rangers came across nearly 40 separate piles of dog excrement that owners had failed to collect. The parks department has a green-yellow-red system to notify park users as to the state of the dog park. The park was in red status early Wednesday, meaning it should be shut down.

“It is not the responsibility of Denver parks staff to pick up after people’s dogs,” he said. “We’ll get bags and empty trash cans, but I won’t have my staff pick up dog poop from people who are not picking up after their pets.”

Joseph Marrone lives in the Riverfront Park Community and said he uses the park four times per day for his two dogs. He noted his husky will probably relieve itself in his apartment while the park is closed because it prefers to be off-leash.

Marrone led cleanup efforts in August, the first time the park closed, but said little has changed in most people’s habits.

He also claimed to have spent more than an hour on New Year’s Day cleaning up waste from around the park and that he has heard of confrontations between park users where one refuses to clean up after a dog.

Marrone hopes to lead another cleanup to get the park back open but also wants its users to learn their lesson this time.

“I almost want park to stay closed for a few days so people would understand why it’s closed,” he said. “I hope the parks department will put a sign up there and tell people why it’s closed.”