All trails at Waterdog are now open except Chaparral Trail. You may encounter marked and unmarked hazards, as trail conditions have changed. Beware of fallen trees and erosion. Avoid wet sections. Use trails at your own risk.

In the upcoming November 8, 2022 election, Belmont has two contested races: its first at-large (citywide) mayor, and the City Council member for District 1. After vetting the candidates, including in-person discussions with each of them, we wholeheartedly endorse Julia Mates for Mayor, Gina Latimerlo for District 1 City Council member, and Robin Pang-Maganaris for District 3.

The mayoral race in Belmont is going to affect singletrack access in the city’s open space. Warren Lieberman has said he’ll vote to radically change our multi-use policies, which have enjoyed 30+ years of success. Julia Mates is solidly on the side of multi-use access, and we endorse her candidacy.

Belmont’s Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Plan is being held up by a single, litigious homeowner, and the outcome of the next local election will decide who votes on the topic of recreation in our open spaces. Read more for an update and how you can help protect multi-use recreational access.

Two of our members, Thaddeus Block and Paul Sheng, wrote a guest article with positions that the Waterdog Open Space Stewards—and most of the Belmont community—broadly support. We call on the City Council to pass the PROS plan in its continuation meeting on July 26.

The master plan is up for a vote Tuesday evening, and we support it. The anti-recreation voices are turning up the negativity, and we need your help to get this across the line!

There aren’t “two sides” at Waterdog: there are a small handful of people who are demanding radical and wholesale changes to open space policies, and the rest of the community—including over 3,000 members of our group—who all want a continuation of Waterdog’s decades of successful shared-use policies.

The PROS commission will soon be making recommendations to the Belmont City Council for adoption, and now is the time to rally support for recreation at Waterdog. Here are some things you can do to help.

We need your support! Please take a few minutes to send an email to both info@belmontprosplan.com and PRComm@belmont.gov to let them know you support continued multi-use access to Waterdog.

The tide is turning against the handful of people who seek to cut off high school athletes’ access to the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.

An avalanche of form letters have poured in to the PROS committee from animal rights activists from all over the country. The City wants to hear from local community stakeholders in the PROS process. Cut-and-pasted content from activists from around the country who have likely never even seen the Waterdog Open Space—or even heard of our little town before they were told to send this email—does nothing to move the needle.

Waterdog is closed at night. With the time change causing people to seek out after-work exercise opportunities, it can be tempting to go into the open space at night. Please don’t use Waterdog at night: not only is it against the rules, it gives the small number of anti-recreation voices something to complain about.

The Belmont Heights Civic Improvement Association (BHCIA)—a group whose leadership has been threatening recreational access at Waterdog Lake Open Space—are attacking another local resource: the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.