In a surprising turnabout, the National Park Service has decided not to implement new regulations to manage dog use at Golden Gate NRA/NPS

Not quite a year after announcing that it would enforce new regulations for managing dogs at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the National Park Service has reversed course and dropped the effort, a move that drew applause from dog groups in the San Francisco Bay area.

A press release Thursday from the Park Service announcing the news did not explain the 180-degree reversal other than to say the decision was made "with the support of the Department of the Interior leadership."

That same release said an investigation had been conducted into the use of personal email accounts by Park Service employees in the Bay Area to conduct official business, and while the use of personal emails was inappropriate, it did not influence the outcome of the planning and rulemaking process that led to an announcement last December that tighter rules would govern dog walkers on NRA beaches.

"We can do better and in the interest of upholding the highest standard of transparency and trust with our Bay Area neighbors, we have determined that it is no longer appropriate to continue with the current dog management rulemaking process at Golden Gate National Recreation Area," said Michael Reynolds, acting director of the Park Service.

But groups opposed to the change in regulations maintained Thursday that the personal emails did try to influence the process.

"Emails released as a result of the lawsuit revealed that GGNRA employees, including two superintendents, and the GGNRA FOIA Officer, used private emails to collude with special interest groups opposed to dog walking to generate public support for the GGNRA’s proposed dog plan," a release from Save Our Recreation charged. "The emails also revealed intentional destruction of documents involved in the rulemaking process, the purposeful omission of scientific data, and extreme bias on the part of the Park Service against people with dogs and against dog walking as a recreational activity."

“We always knew the process was rigged against us,” said Sally Stephens, from the San Francisco Dog Owners Group. “The emails we uncovered because of the FOIA lawsuit proved we were right. And now the Park Service has acknowledged that the documents were damning enough that they couldn’t move forward with the dog rule.

“Thanks to Congresswoman Jackie Speier and new leadership at the Department of Interior, we are now seeing accountability and transparency that was sorely lacking at the National Park Service,” Ms. Stephens added.

When Golden Gate officials last December announced they would update the rules, acting General Superintendent Jim Milestone said that under the plan, "(W)e will proudly remain the most dog-friendly park in the National Park System and the only one to offer off-leash dog recreation."

But some dog owners were unimpressed with the management plan that took years to arrive at.

“I think we started out with a highly restrictive plan for dog-walking years ago, and we’ve ended with a highly restrictive plan for dog-walking,” Christine Corwin, president of the Coastside Dog Owners Group of San Mateo County, told the East Bay Times at the time. “They have conceded very little.”

Following Thursday's announcement that the new regulations would not be put into effect, the group Save Our Recreation and local dog groups praised that decision.

“This is a huge victory for the people of the Bay Area,” said Save Our Recreation’s Andrea Buffa. “For years we’ve been telling the Park Service that dog walking is an important form of recreation for us – it’s part of our way of life. Now, finally, they were forced to listen.”

In 2002, the park began enforcing the National Park Service's nationwide pet regulation, but a 2005 federal district court decision found that the park could not rescind its 1979 pet policy without first completing a rulemaking process. The park's subsequent decision to examine alternatives to the 1979 pet policy triggered the Dog Management Plan environmental review and the associated rulemaking process. A final rule was anticipated in early 2017 but was placed on hold in January, pending completion of the NPS-initiated independent review to determine whether the use of personal email by park employees affected the planning and rulemaking processes.

Under Thursday's decision, Golden Gate will continue to enforce existing pet regulations detailed in a 1979 pet policy and the Superintendent's Compendium. The current regulations allow visitors to walk managed dogs under voice or leash control in specific areas of the park. That basically covers about 1 percent of the NRA, including Fort Funston, Ocean Beach, Crissy Field, Baker Beach, Lands End, Muir Beach, Rodeo Beach, and various trails in the Marin Headlands, among other places, the dog groups said.