A spike in incidents of dog poo at Te Anau's Ivon Wilson Park has the local kindergarten not only concerned for the safety of its young 3-4-year-olds, who regularly use it as an outdoor classroom, but also determined to do something about it.

The 35ha Southland District Council (SDC) park is popular with both locals and tourists and is used for picnicking, dog walking, disc golf, mountain biking and as a venue for wedding photos.

Fiordland Kindergarten pupils find another dog poo while exploring in Ivon Wilson Park. Photo: Supplied

Fiordland Kindergarten (FK) head teacher Tracey Braven said they loved having people and their dogs but wondered if there shouldn't be more bins and signage.

"The dogs come to the shed and we are teaching the children, don't just run up to a dog and pat it, ask the owner."

However she can't remember a time when she has seen more dog poo at the park, with 3, 4 or 5 dog deposits regularly left on tracks - either where it fell or in bags.

"Dog owners are probably getting their dogs to go under the trees to do it too, without realising our children are climbing the trees and crawling through the bushes."

Determined to do something about the problem, FK Relief teacher/Kaiako John Carter and his young charges decided to speed up the decay of the unwanted poo by providing park visitors with free sawdust sachets.

"The idea is that people can take a bag off [the board] and sprinkle the sawdust on the poo, to help it break down faster," Braven said.

A poster Fiordland Kindergarten have created to encourage the use of sawdust on dog poo. Photo: Supplied

"It will be interesting to see, over the next couple of weeks, if anyone takes a bag."

Braven said that potentially the exercise could become part of the children's lessons.

"I guess it's a good science experiement to see how long it takes too."

"Some are right into poo at the moment."

"We've had comments on how fluffy it is."

Fiordland Kindergarten pupils with a poster and bags of sawdust they have created, to help clean up Ivon Wilson Park of dog poo. Photo: Supplied

SDC councilor Sarah Greaney said she wasn't aware of the issue but told the Southland App that lodging a 'request for service' with council, for things such as gardens or rubbish, would ensure that it was investigated.

We certainly don't expect the public to have to address these issues, she said.