Satellite tracks dog droppings

BOULDER, Colo. -- A Colorado man has found a more down-to-earth use for satellite-tracking devices than stopping drug smugglers or pinpointing military targets: locating dog droppings.

With a global positioning device in hand, botanist Patrick Murphy charts piles of feces along a trail in an attempt to persuade city leaders to ban dogs from the area.

"They, too, will think I'm a nut," said Murphy, 50. "I'm making people aware of the obvious. The dog poop is abundant there. It stinks, it pushes out the deer and the birds."

In this college town where the library recently displayed an exhibit of ceramic penises, some people just shake their heads.

"I think it's pretty silly," dog owner Jenny Boid said as she walked her golden retriever-chocolate Labrador mix on the trail. "He has a good point, but he could probably put his efforts into organizing a solution, like scheduling community poop pickups."

Counting piles

Three times in the past year, Murphy has walked the Sanitas Valley trail with his GPS device, counting piles of droppings along the gravel footpath. He then plugs the GPS into his computer and generates maps with each pile marked with a green X.

On his last count, he tallied 1,494 mounds in a one-mile stretch, compared with 708 in December 2000.

The former dog owner plans to present his latest chart to the City Council on Tuesday. But council members said they are hard-pressed for a solution.

"Somehow we need to encourage people to be more responsible," Deputy Mayor Tom Eldridge said. "I wish I had an answer."

Murphy, who holds a master's in plant ecology and is a self-employed environmental consultant to governments and businesses, says dog droppings add nitrogen to the soil, promoting non-native weeds. And roaming canines trample the native sand lilies, prickly poppies and tall grass prairie.