Callahan State Park is an 820-acre park located in Northwest Framingham. Park uses come from many different cities and towns to exercise and socialize their dogs off-leash there.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) will hold a public meeting to discuss off-leash recreation at Callahan State Park, Tuesday evening, December 5, at 7:00 in the Lower Level Meeting Room in Framingham Town Hall, 150 Concord Street, Framingham, MA (directions).

Please come to the public meeting and support the efforts of Callahan park users to work with the community and with the DCR for options that serve the needs of all Callahan park users and neighbors.

The DCR is in the process of revising park regulations. Massachusetts dog owner groups are concerned that the DCR will establish a blanket policy requiring that dogs be on leash on DCR properties. We are asking that the DCR include in the regulations a provision for off-leash recreation in designated areas.

Dog owners who enjoy off-leash recreation (or would like to be able to do so legally) at DCR parks—e.g. Sheep Fold in the Middlesex Fells Reservation—must act now to ensure that the DCR includes provisions for off-leash recreation in the new park regulations. This concerns us intimately in Somerville: 60% of public open space in our City is maintained by the DCR (Alewife Brook Reservation [Dilboy Field], Draw Seven Park, Foss Park, Mystic River Parkland, and Shore Drive Parkland).