AUBURN — The Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission has decided to post signs and monitor Whitman Spring Road in an effort to get dog walkers there to clean up after their animals.

If that doesn’t work, the commission may consider banning dogs from the area.

“We can close it off to dogs if that’s what we need to do,” said Mary Jane Dillingham, water quality manager for the Auburn Water District. “Hopefully, that’s not what we need to do.”

The gated, 2-mile stretch of rural road runs along Lake Auburn and is popular with hikers and dog walkers. It is owned by the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission.

Signs currently tell visitors to keep their dogs leashed but don’t ask them to clean up after the dogs. In the past, it hasn’t been a problem. But now dog feces dot the side of the road, are piled on top of snow and submerged in mud puddles. The worst spots are near the road’s West Auburn entrance, uphill from the lake.

That lack of cleanup has raised pollution concerns. 

On Tuesday, the commission agreed to post cleanup signs in the area. Dillingham said the signs will also emphasize that dogs should remain on leashes and will remind visitors that Lake Auburn provides the area’s drinking water.  

“We will be monitoring it closely because it’s not good,” Dillingham said. “And people shouldn’t have to step in dog poop when they go for a walk.”

Pack Life, a local group dedicated to helping dogs, has offered to help clean up the area and to promote responsible dog ownership.

Dillingham expected the signs to be posted in about a week.

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