Welcome to the Poopcast

Yeah.

So I think it's just time to like get real with it.

So a big topic, like you just said that we kind of talk about a lot and everybody seems to know about, but it feels a little taboo for some reason is dog poop.

So what is going on in Salt Lake city public lands with dog poop? Like what, what is happening? Yeah.

I think, um, and I can speak primarily from trails and natural lands, but I also talked to my director colleagues in urban, excuse me, friend parks and golf.

Cause I, poop is a problem um say it louder preach preach um so and it is and it is a problem that is there's no one's fault it is just a learned behavior and and what we expect um historically not to get too deep down the rabbit hole of the environmental movement but you know um There was not a lot of knowledge in the 20th century until the latter quarter of the century about what was best practice and understood about keeping our environments clean, our parks clean, our rivers clean, etc.

And it was just expected.

I mean, it wasn't that long ago we were dumping sewage straight into rivers, which is why we have a big cleanup with Jordan River, but every city is dealing with that.

The reason one of the problems with dogs is that it's like, well, it's just a little bit, you know, but things do add up.

And, you know, we literally are in the hundreds of tons of dog poop that are littering our public lands on an annual basis.

And it's a lack of awareness, I think.

I think it's not intentional.

There probably is some misinformation about there.

It's like, oh, it biodegrades.

I'm like, no, it doesn't.

It's just like, well, and even if it does, it's over how many years and how long do we have to look at it? And I think our big goal with the poop is to really actually help people understand how we can do this together.

I'm looking at Kim and Fanola and I, we laugh on a weekly basis, but all the crazy things we could initiate with the public, and we're not going to, no spoiler alerts here, we're going to let them do their job and roll out some fun and activities and just engage people and make sure that we're all doing this together, whether that might be, maybe poop fairy related or not.

Totally.

But the reality is that most people are out there with their dogs because they love their dogs and they love nature and they don't want to make it a worse place.

And I think by doing it together and understanding both the nature's needs and visitors' needs and the dog's needs, we can probably put together a plan that really improves it in a fun and meaningful way.

For sure.

Yeah.

And then so besides poop just being gross to smell, look at, have to deal with in general, what's the impact that it's having on vegetation and the land itself? Because you can even see that in yards when you look, you know, someone doesn't.

pick up in their yard

that

Yeah.

So I think it's just time to like get real with it.

So a big topic, like you just said that we kind of talk about a lot and everybody seems to know about, but it feels a little taboo for some reason is dog poop.

So what is going on in Salt Lake city public lands with dog poop? Like what, what is happening? Yeah.

I think, um, and I can speak primarily from trails and natural lands, but I also talked to my director colleagues in urban, excuse me, friend parks and golf.

Cause I, poop is a problem um say it louder preach preach um so and it is and it is a problem that is there's no one's fault it is just a learned behavior and and what we expect um historically not to get too deep down the rabbit hole of the environmental movement but you know um There was not a lot of knowledge in the 20th century until the latter quarter of the century about what was best practice and understood about keeping our environments clean, our parks clean, our rivers clean, etc.

And it was just expected.

I mean, it wasn't that long ago we were dumping sewage straight into rivers, which is why we have a big cleanup with Jordan River, but every city is dealing with that.

The reason one of the problems with dogs is that it's like, well, it's just a little bit, you know, but things do add up.

And, you know, we literally are in the hundreds of tons of dog poop that are littering our public lands on an annual basis.

And it's a lack of awareness, I think.

I think it's not intentional.

There probably is some misinformation about there.

It's like, oh, it biodegrades.

I'm like, no, it doesn't.

It's just like, well, and even if it does, it's over how many years and how long do we have to look at it? And I think our big goal with the poop is to really actually help people understand how we can do this together.

I'm looking at Kim and Fanola and I, we laugh on a weekly basis, but all the crazy things we could initiate with the public, and we're not going to, no spoiler alerts here, we're going to let them do their job and roll out some fun and activities and just engage people and make sure that we're all doing this together, whether that might be, maybe poop fairy related or not.

Totally.

But the reality is that most people are out there with their dogs because they love their dogs and they love nature and they don't want to make it a worse place.

And I think by doing it together and understanding both the nature's needs and visitors' needs and the dog's needs, we can probably put together a plan that really improves it in a fun and meaningful way.

For sure.

Yeah.

And then so besides poop just being gross to smell, look at, have to deal with in general, what's the impact that it's having on vegetation and the land itself? Because you can even see that in yards when you look, you know, someone doesn't.

pick up in their yard

that