(UPDATE: Dog owners were hitting up other dog owners during soccer matches at Elm Bank on Saturday, May 17, to sign a petition against the No Dog Zone.)
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has put in place a dog ban — effective May 16 — in the garden and upper campus areas of Elm Bank Reservation, the park on the Wellesley/Dover/South Natick line that it calls home. Dogs will still be allowed in the area between the blue and red lines shown on this map, as well as on wooded trails.
MassHort leases the interior 36-acres of Elm Bank from the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation. Total acreage of Elm Bank Reservation is 182 acres.
MassHort President Kathy Macdonald says the change to policy is being made to help protect the gardens and the many volunteers who work on them. “We’ve looked at other public gardens and you don’t see dogs all over the place… we decided that we needed a boundary,” she says. Walkers will still have 152 acres at Elm Bank where they can bring their dogs, and new signs have been installed along the roadway to help improve safety for those walking on it, she said.
Here’s the policy:
- *No Dogs are allowed in the gardens and upper campus of Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Gardens at Elm Bank.
- The No Dog Zone includes the gardens, buildings, and the entire immediate area surrounding them.
- The No Dog Zone area is defined by the area enclosed by the iron fences and from the delivery access road behind the cottage to the crest of the sliding hill.
- Please follow the posted No Dog signs that define the No Dog Zone.
- This policy applies to all dogs with the exception of service dogs.
- To report any incidents, please contact the Mass Hort offices on the second floor of the Education Building.
The remaining DCR property, 146 acres of fields and woodland trails, welcomes dogs on leashes.
It remains to be seen, of course, how the heck this policy will be enforced. The dog leashing rules already in effect have never been enforced as far as we can tell.
But you can get your questions answered Monday, May 19 at Elm Bank during a Q&A session from 8:30-9:30am. Walkers and their dogs have been invited to meet in the Putnam Greenhouse parking lot for donuts, coffee, and biscuits. The DCR area director and ranger, and the Dover dog officer, will be there.
RELATED: Elm Bank access — It’s ours, all ours!
Yesterday while walking my 8-pound chihuahua on the trails in Elm Bank I was approached and ticketed by a DCR Ranger and a MA State Trooper…both on horseback…for allegedly having my dog off leash. However, when they approached me from over 50 feet away my dog was on leash. It was an unnecessary and inappropriate show of “muscle”. The DCR has been waging war against dog walkers in Elm Bank on and off for years. It is time for dog walkers to organize and push back. I am sorry that I did not hear about this meeting until later in the day.
Congratulations to DCR!!!It is about time ,please next stop millennium park in westroxbury also under the jurisdiction of DCR.Pretty sad when you cant take your kids all under 10 to elm bank to play frisbee on fields when you have some idiot with a pit bull off lease yelling dont worry he is friendly!!!!!Stick to your guns MASS HORT…..