Hundreds of pounds of dog poop and other health and safety issues at Evergreen’s Elk Meadow dog park has open space officials considering closing the popular area.

“We are going to close the park at some point at some level for what is referred to as our Natural Resource Protection act,” said Matt Robbins, a Jefferson County Open Space community connections manager. “The intent at that point is to go in and clean up what we believe is in excess of 500 pounds of dog waste.”

Jefferson County Open Space officials broke the news to community members at a meeting Feb. 9. The decision seemed abrupt to some after the second of what was to be three meetings to gather community input and suggestions for how to address the issues of dog waste, illegal parking along the road outside the park and vegetation loss.

“It was not at all what we expected last night, so I feel a little bit shocked,” said Betsy Rich, who said she attended the meeting. Rich said she “fell in love with Evergreen at the dog park” and subsequently moved there with her husband and their Bernese mountain dogs. She is a leader of the volunteer group Friends of Elk Meadow Park DOLA, which has spent time cleaning up dog poop and helping Jeffco Open Space poll visitors, and educate them.

Rich said she is not happy with the decision to close the park, but she understands it.

“As someone who has helped clean up almost 500 pound of poop, it’s awful what’s happened to the park,” she said. “It’s not just he poop, it’s the fact that so many people and so many dogs use it, and the land just can’t sustain it.”

Robbins said that since the first meeting Jan. 19, park rangers have watched dog waste pile up at the park at an alarming rate. That, compounded with the loss of vegetation and soil erosion that would otherwise help filter the bacteria from the waste, brought a sense of urgency to the situation.

“We really believe the longer we wait, the longer it will take to get back to the place where we want to be,” Robbins said.

The decision is also due in part to the feedback gathered at the first community meeting, Robbins said. More than 90 percent of people polled agreed that the park’s experience was diminishing, and agreed on the causes, and some suggested closing the park.

The feedback also reflected a belief that the majority of park users are from outside the community and suggestions that park users be charged. But Robbins said that asking visitors their ZIP code over the course of six days and 16 total hours — a poll yielding more than 1,000 different ZIP codes – showed that not to be the case.

“We saw folks coming from well up into Larimer and Weld County, Douglas County, Elbert County,” he said. “But the vast majority – over 54 percent – during this one segment were coming from the 80439 zip code, which is Evergreen and Conifer.”

Robbins said that while the decision to close the park is not official, it is very likely and the third meeting will now inform the community what to expect in the form of a closure, and ask for help with restoration.

“We are proceeding with our natural resources team with a plan we will roll out on (Feb. 23),” Robbins said.