Hello,
I live inside the Blue Line, and am upset about the unfairness of the DEC position on geocaching. Snowmobilers run rampant all over the park, excreting noise and air pollution, not to mention beer cans and Mcdonald's wrappers, with minimal interference from the DEC. Why should geocachers be picked on while snowmobilers have the run of my/our public lands without the unfair restrictions? Geocaching is lower-impact than them, and can bring lots of economic activity into economically challenged areas of the park year around.
I think that we should organize a letter/email campaign to reach out to our senators and congresspeople, telling them that we would like a fair shake on the use of our public lands. I would not propose that geocaching be totally free from oversight, but the DEC's current stand is outrageous. We should be able to get a Temporary Revocable Permit (TRP, a bureaucratic tool of the DEC that already exists) that allows us to place geocaches on a 1-2 year basis, at which time, the state of geocaching on public lands can be reviewed by the DEC, and we could go on from there.
Are there any other New Yorkers interested in starting a campaign like I mention above? Please respond on this forum, and we can get started on the road to changing the DEC's minds about geocaching.
NFA - Jamie