Canine play area in the works.

Byline: JEFF WRIGHT The Register-Guard

Chris Girard knew it was a good omen when he posted a single sign seeking volunteers for a weekend work party - and more than 40 people showed up.

"I was just swarmed by dog owners," said Girard, Eugene's parks volunteer coordinator. "I figured we had at least five hours of work, and we got it all done in three."

The object of the dog owners' affection is a new 4-acre off-leash park under construction in a northeast pocket of Alton Baker Park, just west of the Canoe Canal footbridge near Autzen Stadium and WISTEC.

The space will replace Alton Baker Park's existing off-leash park, a Spartan but heavily used 2-acre fenced area beside the park's community garden. The current off-leash park is devoid of trees and missing much of its original vegetation because of heavy use.

The new park will have plenty more trees and amenities. But the best feature may be the city's plan to cross-fence the bow-tie-shaped park so that half can be put into pasture rotation while the other half absorbs the traffic of four-footed visitors.

"That's a wonderful, wonderful idea," said Michael Kostrikin, who owns a redbone coon hound named Abby. "If one area breaks down, you can move into the other one."

Kostrikin said he's a regular user of the off-leash park - "If we don't get there at least twice a week, she starts acting like a child," he said of Abby - and is accustomed to sharing the current space with as many as 40 other dogs and their owners.

"This time of year, more come from the other parks because they are even worse mudholes," he said, referring to the city's two other off-leash areas at Amazon Park and Wayne Morse Ranch, both on the south side of town.

The biggest gripe some dog owners have about the new off-leash park is that it won't be open until late July or early August. That's because city crews have graded and seeded a portion previously used as a storage area, and want to wait until the turf is healthy before letting dogs romp on it.

But the outline of the new off-leash park has formed: Fence poles and gates are in, and crews began attaching galvanized livestock wire around the perimeter last week. The fencing includes three double-gate entrances, to allow owners to enter a first gate, then unleash their dogs and open a second gate.

Other planned amenities include a wash-down area on a concrete or gravel pad; water fountains; benches; a gravel walking path; and trash cans partially embedded in the ground. About 25 saplings have been planted at the east end, while oaks, firs and other mature trees already grace the west end.

Instead of driving into Alton Baker Park as they do now, dog owners will drive onto Centennial Boulevard and Leo Harris Parkway to reach a parking lot next to the Canoe Canal footbridge. One of the existing off-leash park's biggest problems, said city parks planner John Weber, is a too-small parking area that's frequently overcrowded.

The new off-leash park is expected to cost between $10,000 and $15,000 and will be paid for from the parks and open-spaces bond measure approved by Eugene voters in 1998. The city has earmarked about $500,000 in bond proceeds for improvements to Alton Baker Park, including a new boat ramp and regional playground.

The off-leash park's relocation, in fact, is a product of public testimony in support of more open space at Alton Baker, Weber said. The existing off-leash park and community garden will be turned into a natural meadow; the garden will move to another patch further east along Day Island Road.

At the new off-leash park, the 40-plus volunteers who showed up for a work party last month put down a 6-foot-wide, 1,200-foot-long gravel walking path in the west end, trimmed tree branches and beat back some blackberries.

Steve Shapiro, who attended the work party, and his wife, Sharon Fridrick, regularly take their three dogs to Alton Baker.

Shapiro said he's looking forward to building a "dog activity center" - an exercise course of sorts - for the new park.

Kathy Brennerman, another regular visitor with her dog, Samantha, said she loves the new park's shade trees and rolling terrain. "It's going to be more fun for dogs and people because they've got all these hidey-holes," she said.

As for future work parties, Brennerman predicts more good turnouts. "Everyone I've talked to says they want to come to the next one."

CAPTION(S):

Abby (right) and her four-legged friends (left to right) Essie, Lullaby and Corky, have lots to bark about with a new dog park under way. At rear is Sharon Fridrick. STEPHANIE BARROW / The Register-Guard