As of this week dogs are temporarily banned from a large portion of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Greensboro. And it's more of a human problem than a canine one.
The historic battlefield is facing a modern problem: owners not cleaning up after their dogs.
Jason Collins is the acting chief of interpretation for the park. He says the issue predominantly affects the central portion of the site.
"Those interior trails are a lot of where the heaviest fighting took place during the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781,” he says. "So a lot of that is resource preservation.”
There's also an environmental risk, he says, as heavy rains can lead to dog excrement flowing into the area waterways.
Collins says the ban is temporary for now but warned it could become permanent if the situation doesn't improve.
There are still places at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park where dogs are welcomed. They include the park tour road, the greenway that bisects the park, and the connector trail to Country Park.