"It's a popular park and its purpose is to attract people, so it's successful," Lund said. "People need to be educated. We need to have rules and regulations and make sure they're enforced."

More than a victory, Lund said she sees the park's off-leash designation as a means to help instruct dog owners and other users as to how to care for the park.

To help with the effort, F.I.D.O.S. has begun holding education days, where volunteers position themselves at the park's entrance to talk with people and point out any problems they see as well as to thank people who are doing things right, she said. The group also plans to hold regular cleanup days.

"There are criteria that we have to follow if we're going to get this (permanent off-leash) designation and we have every intention of doing everything we can and then some to make this work," Lund said.

Ultimately the parks department is still responsible for cleaning up the area and if it's misused the city will take that into consideration as officials decide whether to continue the park as an off-leash area, Yorkin said.

Dog owners are required to leash their dogs in the adjacent Tanner Park and in the streets neighboring Parley's Historic Nature Park.

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