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Summer 2008
PNWWATER 136
Alaska's "Scoop the Poop" Program Update

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Got Poop? posterThe Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska has a population of about 300,000 people who in turn own 60,000 dogs. Since 2003 the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Alaska, Fairbanks in partnership with the Anchorage Waterways Council, the Bureau of Land Management, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Municipality of Anchorage has been involved in a public pet waste education program called “Scoop the Poop.”

One of the primary media portions of the project has been a series of posters featuring local celebrities with their dogs showing their support for picking up the waste. The celebrities included a dog musher, a TV news team, and an Olympic gold medal winner. These posters were posted at all the veterinarian offices, at local stores, public buildings, and other public venues.

Three Public Service Announcements were produced for the local television stations. A local actor volunteered her time along with a local choir and the humorous videos were also shown at local events at the “Scoop the Poop’ booth.

The Poop PyramidOver 54 “poop stations” have been installed throughout the park system and trail heads in the Municipality of Anchorage. These stations include signage, waste bags, and trash receptacles including numerous bear proof trash containers located where bears often wander.

Initially a public poop clean up along the Bureau of Land Management public use trails was the major yearly event to advertise spring clean up. However, after the first two years there was no longer enough waste to pick up so the venue was relocated. As of this last year (2008) there are now at least three clean up events at local dog parks and a major event entitled “Dog Day Afternoon” held on the Delany Park Strip that is attended by the public and their dogs with various events including a dog fashion show, venders, and demonstrations from local dog clubs.

A survey on dog ownership, where owners walk their dogs, and waste pick up behavior was undertaken in 2007. The short surveys were distributed with utility bills throughout the Municipality. On back of the survey was a raffle ticket for prizes as incentive to mail in the survey. Also included in the mailing was educational material. Out of 52,000 utility users (with or without dogs) 1,593 returned the survey.

 
Washington State University logo University of Idaho logo Oregon State University logo University of Alaska Fairbanks logo Northwest Indian College logo Environmental Protection Agency logo USDA-NIFA logo

Pacific Northwest Regional Water
Quality Coordination Project
Partners

Land Grant Universities
Alaska
Cooperative Extension Service
Contact Fred Sorensen:
907-786-6311
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/
University Publications:
http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/

Idaho
University of Idaho
Cooperative Extension System
Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025
http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html
University Publications:
http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html

Oregon
Oregon State University
Extension Service
Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/
University Publications:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/

Washington
Washington State University
WSU Extension
Contact Bob Simmons:
360-427-9670 ext. 690
http://wawater.wsu.edu/
University Publications:
http://pubs.wsu.edu/

Northwest Indian College
Contact Dan Burns: 360-392-4328
dburns@nwic.edu or
http://www.nwic.edu/

Water Resource Research Institutes
Water and Environmental Research
Center (Alaska)
http://www.uaf.edu/water/

Idaho Water Resources
Research Institute
http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/

Institute for Water and Watersheds
(Oregon)
http://water.oregonstate.edu/

State of Washington
Water Research Center
http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/

Environmental Protection Agency
EPA, Region 10
The Pacific Northwest
http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/

Office of Research and Development,
Corvallis Laboratory
http://www.epa.gov/wed/

For more information contact
Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or
seago.jan@epa.gov

The Project
Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Our Goal and Approach
The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs.

Our Strengths
The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration, and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.

The Poop CycleIn 2008 the local Municipality Assembly was considering a bill to eliminate dog use in local ball fields. This regulation would have been costly and impossible to enforce. The committee working with local dog groups convinced the assembly to hold off on the regulations and consider alternatives such as more signage and educational emphasis at the parks. The municipality provided additional funding and the program is under way at this time.

The Anchorage Municipality has a number of local lakes that are listed on the 303d list for coliform bacteria. In 2008 Cheney Lake was de-listed and the “Scoop the Poop” campaign was mentioned as a contributing factor in the decrease in pollution at that site.

Scoop the Poop logo

National Water Quality Program Areas

The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

  1. Animal Waste Management
  2. Drinking Water and Human Health
  3. Environmental Restoration
  4. Nutrient and Pesticide Management
  5. Pollution Assessment and Prevention
  6. Watershed Management
  7. Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management
  8. Water Policy and Economics
NIFA is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

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Download the informational PDF flyer here

A cooperative program consisting of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
and
the Land Grant Colleges and Universities.

- a Regionally-Based National Network -

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USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
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NIFA National Water Quality Program

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734.

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page last modified on July 15, 2008

NIFA PNW Regional Water Quality Program