They're not park rangers: Volunteers remind Palm Springs hikers of new dog ban

Rebecca Plevin | Palm Springs Desert Sun

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Hikers who scale the steep, craggy South Lykken Trail in Palm Springs might encounter some new faces at the trailhead.

Starting this week, the Palm Springs Volunteer Trail Rangers are greeting people as they embark on the path and informing them about the risks of bringing dogs — even friendly, leashed ones — into the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep's habitat.

Bighorn sheep view canines as predators; seeing dogs can cause them to flee feeding and watering sites, according to the Bighorn Institute in Palm Desert.

The volunteer rangers are also educating hikers about a new city ordinance, approved Oct. 23, that prohibits dogs on hiking trails in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains areas. Under the new rules, hikers caught bringing dogs on trails will get a courtesy notice on their first offense, and face fines of $100, $250 and $500 on subsequent offenses.

Members of the new group, however, are not there to enforce the city ordinance.

“We don’t want to get in an argument with anybody,” said Jim Flanagan, a volunteer ranger and member of the city’s Sustainability Commission. “It’s just such a beautiful animal and anything we can do to keep them around for as long as possible is worth it.”

New city ordinance bans dogs on trails

The Peninsular bighorn sheep live in rocky, low-elevation desert slopes, canyons and washes from the mountains near Palm Springs to Baja California. They were listed as a federally endangered species in 1998.

In 2007, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments, with the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, approved a plan to conserve more than 240,000 acres of open space to protect 27 different threatened and endangered species, including the bighorn sheep.

The plan, known as the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, established certain restrictions on recreational trails, including a prohibition on dogs. But the ban was never incorporated into the Palm Springs Municipal Code — until this fall.

In August, the city took the first step toward educating hikers about the harm dogs can cause to bighorn sheep. CVAG supplied the city with signs informing people of the ban. City staff affixed the signs at the trailheads of the Museum, South Lykken, North Lykken and Araby trails.

This fall, the city council also approved the ordinance prohibiting dogs on all trails, to comply with the conservation plan’s provisions related to bighorn sheep. The ordinance, effective Nov. 23, doesn’t apply to people who use service animals or those using dogs for search and rescue or law enforcement operations.

Since the city lacks rangers or other employees who regularly use hiking trails for work, city council staff anticipated that enforcement of the rule would, “occur through the public advising the city of hikers with dogs, and the City’s Code Enforcement officers intercepting these hikers as they exit the trail,” according to a September staff report.

'Appeal to their animal-lover instinct'

With no city staff actively enforcing the new ordinance, some hikers and their four-legged companions have continued to tromp along popular paths, beyond the signs at trailheads warning of the dog ban.

So earlier this week, Flanagan and a couple volunteers donned brown t-shirts, emblazoned with the words “Trail Ranger Volunteer” and the image of a paw print. They headed to the South Lykken Trailhead not to hike, but to educate residents and tourists.

The city doesn't have a "formal relationship" with the volunteer rangers, but it did provide the group with t-shirts and information to distribute at trailheads, said Palm Springs City Manager David Ready. The city is currently engaged in the "informational process," he said, and the group is assisting in spreading the word about the new ordinance.

"Our intention is just to help everybody understand that the rules have changed for the trails," Ready said. "Most people understand it's for a good reason. They're animal lovers so they can appreciate what the goal of the policy is."

At the South Lykken trailhead, the volunteers, in groups of two, ask people if they are aware that dogs are not allowed on the trail and explain that even the cutest of canines threaten the bighorn sheep, Flanagan said. There are currently about a half-dozen volunteers, he said.

“We try to appeal to their animal-lover instinct,” he said.

If people become angry or defiant, he said, the volunteers won’t challenge them. Instead, he said, they suggest hikers leave their dogs at home next time or use a dog-friendly trail, such as the Homme-Adams Park and Cahuilla Hills Park in Palm Desert, the Cove Oasis Trailhead in La Quinta and the San Bernardino National Forest.

During their deployments, the volunteer rangers are collecting data about how many people with dogs approach the trailhead and how many embark on a hike despite being informed of the ban, Flanagan said.

One day, for example, they encountered about 40 hikers at the trailhead in one hour, he said. About a half-dozen people planned to bring dogs on the trail; at least four turned around after talking with the volunteers, while one with two dogs continued up the hill.

Flanagan said he intends to share the data with the city’s code enforcement team.

The group's feedback will help city officials determine if they should send code enforcement staff to the trailheads to increase compliance with the new rule and issue citations if necessary, Ready said.

In the future, Flanagan said, the volunteer rangers might staff other popular trailheads as well, including at the Museum, Araby and Skyline trails.

Rebecca Plevin is a reporter for The Desert Sun. Reach her at rebecca.plevin@desertsun.com. Follow her on Twitter at @rebeccaplevin.