Fiesta Island Dog Owners held their annual Halloween bash and general membership meeting on Oct. 28, cluing members in on continuing efforts to improve their 90-acre, off-leash fenced area on the man-made island.

A nonprofit, FIDO currently has about 16,000 members. The group’s annual “Barktober” brewery event at Bay City Brewing Co. in Midway was a fun costume contest for pooches with several categories including cutest, most creative, scariest, and most hilarious.

However, the larger purpose of FIDO’s annual meeting was to update dog lovers on the status of several key projects being worked on. Those include building a pet memorial, managing weeds and invasive plant species, and improving coastal access for the island’s legally sanctioned dog park.

FIDO president Carolyn Chase said the group is making progress on all of these long-sought-after improvements. “We’re paying for and signing the right-of-entry permit for the pet memorial this week,” she said adding the project “has to go back for some kind of additional (City) review before we can start (construction). The project is estimated to cost about $2,500. We are signing up volunteers now.”

The City’s Parks and Recreation Board in April unanimously endorsed a FIDO proposal to re-create a pet memorial in the off-leash section of the island. For 10 years, people using the off-leash area to walk their pets had been placing painted rocks in a six-foot-diameter spot next to a path in the middle of the area to honor dogs lost. The impromptu memorial was removed after someone complained of a canine being buried nearby. The City subsequently removed the remaining memorial-painted rocks, eventually storing them at the park ranger’s office for retrieval.

Another FIDO improvement project includes a plan to reduce foxtails harmful to pets, as well as problematic tumbleweeds on the island. FIDO board member Debbie Madden, in a group slideshow presentation, pointed out the California Coastal Commission, which oversees coastal development, approved the final plan amendment for Fiesta Island in 2022, with modifications for the City to add language supporting weed and non-native plant removal on the island.

“Immature and mature foxtails, barbed like a fishhook, can enter the eyes, noses, ears and under the skin of pets traveling one way,” warned Madden adding, “They can cause tissue damage, which can cost thousands of dollars.”

The solution to the foxtail-tumbleweed issue lies in mowing weeds at the proper time of the year. However, that conflicts with the City’s current mowing schedule on the island.

“The only way to get both foxtails and tumbleweeds, which are invasive, under control is to mow the tops of the grasses before they go to seed,” noted Chase, who added a problem has arisen with determining which governmental agency is responsible for regulating Fiesta Island. “We’re (FIDO) trying to approach all the regulating agencies to get them to approve a mowing regimen that matches our goals with weed management for invasive species,” Chase said.

Government officials have thus far been reluctant to change their current Fiesta Island mowing schedule, fearing they might destroy nesting endangered bird species in the area. Chase said FIDO has addressed that problem.

“We hired someone to do a biological survey this year looking for endangered species bird nests, and we did not find any nests in the dog park,” she said adding District 2 Councilmember Dr. Jennifer Campbell, as part of her budget requests this year, “has asked City Parks and Recreation Department to support the management of foxtails on the island.”

Chase said another longer-term FIDO project involves hiring an architect to improve coastal access by designing and adding stairs on the west and south sides of the dog park.

Also in the long term, FIDO wants to develop a private-public partnership to help fund maintenance improvement projects in the future on Fiesta Island.