A few weeks ago, dog walker Kelly Marshall led his seven dogs to an open field between 38th and 39th Streets NW in Glover Park. Though the field is officially a spur of Rock Creek Park and owned by the National Park Service (NPS), it’s a de facto dog park widely used by the army of walkers that service the Northwest quadrant. The drinking fountain in the park’s southwest corner, installed by the NPS, even features a ground-level water bowl so doggies can lap water along with their masters.

Marshall says that as he approached the park, two park rangers removing an old mattress from the woods stopped him. “Are you a dog walker?” the ranger asked, according to Marshall. “Because it’s illegal to run a business on federal land without a permit.”

The ranger told Marshall that he was not allowed to take the dogs into the park—leash or no leash. When Marshall asked how he could obtain a permit, the ranger told him that the NPS doesn’t issue them for dog walkers. Earlier that day, another walker who had his dogs off leash was threatened with the impoundment of his dogs.

“The things that people get harassed or ticketed for are for having dogs off leash,” says Marshall. “This is the first that I’ve ever heard of people harassed for having a business on federal land.”

NPS spokesman Bill Line says that the ranger was correct in his interpretation of the law. “If someone wants to operate a dog-walking business and make money off it…and you are using the park on a regular basis to walk the dogs, you’re coming pretty close to or crossing the line of constituting a business,” he says.

Since all the canine traffic could harm the park, the NPS has the authority to require a permit. “Many people who do walk dogs don’t pick up their dogs’ poop,” Line adds. “Is it fair to the next visitor to walk in that dog’s poop? Would you want to walk through that poop?”

Line says that permits can in fact be obtained by calling the NPS’ Office of Park Programs. Marshall, however, merely waited until the rangers loaded the mattress into their truck and then sauntered into the park. “I was like, whatever,” he says. “As soon as…they had left, I took the dogs off leash.”

Let the deer sexual revolution begin: National Park Service officials are floating the idea of using birth-control drugs to control the white-tailed deer population in Rock Creek Park.

The population problem has gotten so dire, says park superintendent Adrienne Coleman, that deer eating young trees has led to “bare spots” in the park. “When we have one resource that is damaging another resource, we somehow need to bring it into balance,” she said at a recent “public scoping meeting” held at the Rock Creek Nature Center.

Ken Ferebee, an NPS natural resource management specialist, says that contraception is “a preliminary alternative at this point.” If approved, the deer contraception would work much like human birth control?particularly the once-popular Norplant method. A doe would be trapped and sedated, then contraceptive sticks would be placed under the skin. The deer will be unable to conceive until the implant’s effects wear off.

While a “deer pill” could be a less invasive option, Ferebee says, “There’s no oral contraception that can be administered.”

While contraception is one of the more humane options on the table (other options include the use of fencing, poison, and sharpshooters) one animal-rights group is aginst putting Bambi on the pill. Bill Dallinger of Friends of Animals says people are the problem, not deer. “When free from human intervention, the deer population will stabilize,” Dallinger says. “White-tail deer have an interest in existing on their own terms.”

Why, oh, why is D.C. such a bicycle-unfriendly city? It’s small, bikeable, traffic is congested, etc., yet every time I ride my bike outside the paths in Rock Creek Park, I feel as though I must have a death wish! There are a few bike lanes here and there, but they’re mostly unheeded (with cars parked all over them), or they end mysteriously in the middle of a stretch. Why do the few bike lanes in the city stop mid-street?

Many District bike lanes, or bikeways, stop midstreet because the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) marks most new bikeways only when they resurface the street, says Jim Sebastian, the agency’s city bike coordinator. And since most resurfacing jobs only encompass three to six blocks, the process often leaves bicyclists out of luck.

“Waiting for streets to be resurfaced to mark bike lanes is the most time- and cost-effective solution,” explains Sebastian, noting that DDOT does occasionally mark bike lanes on streets that are not being resurfaced, such as one stretch that connects the Shaw/Howard University Metro station to Dupont Circle.

The new bike lanes are part of DDOT’s District of Columbia Bicycle Plan, released in April 2005. The plan calls for the District to double its current 30 miles of bike lanes by 2015. But since the project is only in its early stages, it occasionally leaves bikers befuddled about where to ride, says Sebastian.

When the $45 million Bicycle Plan is finished, DDOT aims to have 150 miles of signed bike routes in place, as well as the bike lanes. In addition to increasing the number of areas for bicyclists to ride, the plan includes educational programs for both bicyclists and motorists about safe bicycling, plus an enforcement program for bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists.

“You can’t have a bike-friendly city without education and enforcement,” says Sebastian, pointing to Portland, Ore., Chicago, and Philadelphia as cities that have effectively balanced the needs of bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists.

Every Monday, the ‘Huh?’ Bub takes your questions. Got one?