Forsyth Park — Attraction in Surrey

[edit after many calls to the city about the old dumping lot turned dog park, things slowly improved. Sadly it is still a breeding ground for disease and eye injuries thanks to the absorbent wood shavings that both injure while dumping viruses and bacteria in every opening. Every visit = vet trip]

Glad to have a new off-leash dog park, and having two sides, one for small dogs and another for real dogs, is great. Might have been a wise idea to make it so they can't see through the fence though, then maybe there would be less yapping from the cat side. First visit to the dog off leash side we had a very close call. As my dog and two others were playing, they narrowly missed what looked like the bottom of a wine bottle that had been broken sitting just inside the tree covered area. It was laying with the bottom flat and the sharp jagged edges of what glass remained pointing upwards just waiting for a dog to run across it. There were only a few other little pieces of glass around it so I'm not sure where the rest of the bottle went, but it was an accident waiting to happen. After that we looked around and grabbed any last pieces we could see. In the end we had about 1/25th of bottle and no idea where the rest was or how the base came to be at that location just off the trail, a step or so in. Not the sort of thing to allow you to have your dog run around freely and not have to worry. One gentleman said it may have been there since opening day.

Hope to have better experiences in the future, less little dogs yapping and less glass.

--edit-- Ok, someone is targeting this park [error, it was used prior to dump] it is just too often I go there now and there are piles of glass shards hidden just in the grass or wooded area. Constant reports not of dogs who are fully vaccinated getting bacterial infections and the only connection between them is a visit to this park. Something needs to be done about the drainage and why not a camera to deter the person entering the big dog off leash area and leaving large amounts of glass. This time it was two types of home window glass.The urine and feces water needs to be dealt with as well, gets to be a pain to bath your dog every visit, do a load of towels and clean off seat covers even when it hasn't rained in days, but yet there is still multiple pools of water that have even cut through the sawdust making the grass by the fence a mucky mess, Multiple reports of vaccinated dogs getting similar illnesses with the only connection being visit to this park at separate times. Other have also found glass.

These photos were taken after days of no rain.

--short edit as I lost the last one 4/24/2008-- Looks like they listened to people who use the part as they filled 90% of the mud pit up, but there is a 6x4+ area directly connected to the area has no gravel so it makes no difference they covered the large area with [art of the mud pit from the stream still exposed. Seems to be water coming from underground as it has been dry and not raining, yet there is a stream of water pouring. Water has a nice rainbow or shiny look to the surface, so I'm sure it is great for dogs to drink.

Attached more photos if what found on a brief walk through the treed area. Some looks fresh, some may have been dumped there pre-creation of the park. If it was just getting darker or flashlight powerful enough and shine it looking for glass reflecting. I picked up what I could before I had to leave, was about 5-10 minutes before leaving that I was picking it up.. Thankfully they have dog poop bags there now so I had a glove and something to put it all in. Soooo much more but as I left I did my best to pile things in the area where glass was in the hope to same some dogs feet.

What requirements are there for a city park designer these days? All of these issues could have been noted and worked around before building.

Other than that it is a great park, friendly people, but always having to try and pull their yellow labs from the mud that are suddenly chocolate labs.

Finally, springs on the doors...

Forsyth Park is a 3.03 hectare (7.5 acres) community park located between 139 and 140 Street, south of Forsyth Road Elementary School. It features a dog off-leash area, destination nature playground, and supporting picnic areas and pathways.Forsyth Park acts as a primary gathering space in the neighbourhood. The nature play area was funded by a $500,000 gift from TD Bank Group to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday. Forsyth park offers a fully fenced in dog off-leash area of approximately 0.6 hectares (1.42 acres). The off-leash area includes open space, log play elements, a small natural forest area and separated areas for large dogs and small dogs. Street parking is available...

I absolutely adore this park. The room for children and adults and animals is very luxurious pertaining to space. The people are friendly. Park is clean and well-maintained so far that I've noticed there is only the one handicap bathroom. Would be nice to have additional bathrooms for all parties. Beautiful grassbad lots of greens little areas to sit down in groups. The playgrounds are amazing for kids definitely should wear your mask necessary as there is a lot of traffic that do come through. Lots of Sunny spots and lots of shady spots good balance Overall, very serene. And highly...