TerryDad2

I'm happy to hear this park's approval process is so easy. I'll have to check to see how many more got set up there. The park is worth another few visits.

I found that the review note section on the edit cache page actually puts a log on the cache that only reviewers can see. Look at your cache page to see if they are in the logs.

I'm impressed with the approval speed. I submitted 2 EarthCaches Saturday night and they were approved Sunday morning by 10 am. Nice

That is just my wife says. She is also a biologist. I've also heard calls for a historic oriented set of caches. In this case, the program is sponsored by a geologic organization, so the rules are for geologic oriented locations. To get this one through, it will have to be directed toward geologic processes, erosion, deposition, river formation and the like. The invasives and species succession will have to be secondary. As I'm sure someone might point out, there might be a waymark category that is oriented to the biological aspect of the locaiton.

Nice!

This just give me more time to get approvals from land managers. Though I've been waiting for some since 2007.

I think the crux of the problem is that I think Terry makes an effort to respond to every email that he gets, which given the number of EC's he's had Published, must be an Everest of emails in his Inbox That, plus the responses I've received, usually includes some additional information on the EC site. I can understand that it would be difficult/impossible to keep up with that sort of thing. I know that the two EC's in my area that he adopted over to me, are probably the 2nd and 3rd busiest Listings in my Profile, and I also make the effort to respond to each email, to keep within the spirit of how Terry managed them. I can't imagine multiplying that sort of workload X100 or more! I'm more than happy to take more if Terry needs the help, which in turn, means more well written EC's Nail on the head. That would be the issue.

True, but I'm trying to play nice. I'll still be making them up.

The holidays and trying to get a bunch of new ones approved is keeping me busy. I'll return to adopting out some more later. Based on the guidelines that were almost adopted, I'll try to find local cachers to take them.

This is a new one on me. A land manager reviewed my latest listings and sent them back to me asking for more information. At least they are reviewing it and interested in the program. I'll have to use the technical section after the main text.

The review period for the Yosemite EarthCaches are over and it appears they passed with flying colors. They found no additional environmental impact from cache seekers. I included a report of all the logs, e-mails, and photos. They were impressed with the level of interest in the educational aspect of the program. They have expressed interest in having some more developed in the park.

I've worked with numerous National Parks to list EarthCaches. The latest, Yosemite, was very reluctant to allow any. Now after a trial evaluation period, they are pleased with the program and are asking for more. see this thread

Sorry, posted in the wrong park, Yosemite, Yellowstone. At least they both start with Y and end in E.

Those underwater cameras are hard to come by. Even with the underwater camera, the area is famous for low visibility. There are a bunch of pictures from shore.

I've got an EC I rated at 5/5, White Point Hydrothermal Vents. There was some discussion earlier on whether it should be 5/5, but I feel confident about the rating.

I was looking at that spot . Maby next time

I knew I forgot something over the weekend. I didn't reasearch what EarthCaches already exist, so forgive me if I repeat one that already exists. I'm also don't have the geography of your state down, so some of these locations might be too far for you. Here are a few websites to see if you can get some locations. http://www.exploringthenorth.com/rocks/collect.html You could see if there is an area to find your state stone http://www.petoskeystonefestival.com/ A link to a google map of fossil locations in the state is at the bottom of the page http://www.michrocks.org/other/special.shtml I'm not sure what is in the area or how you would get questions but this is an option http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/ind...ions_story.html Spending a few bucks and you can get field guides with locations and decriptions from http://www.mbgs.org/guidebooks.html Sand Dunes http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-g...nddune-PA07.pdf Geologic map of the state http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3...8607---,00.html http://geology.about.com/library/bl/maps/blmichiganmap.htm http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ogs-gimdl-MAPS.pdf Find some of the formation names in your area then do google searches on the rock formation names to see if any local exposures come up Copper road trips http://www.exploringthenorth.com/coppertrips/map.html Other Ideas, Detroit Salt Mine Ice Age Trail, http://www.iceagetrail.org/articles.htm

As I've been thinking about it, I think I'm coming to the same conclusion. I would be one of those developers that would make it hard for others to develop EarthCaches. I will need to lay off developing EarthCaches in my local area so I don’t make it impossible for other locals to develop any. I’ll have to turn my focus on finding cachers to sponsor my EarthCaches anywhere I want to develop one. How will others submitting EarthCaches for me affect these other cachers advancing through Masters program? How will that affect the future “beyond platinum” levels for me?

You and the reviewers put alot of work into the program. I am happy to have it. Thanks.

Based only on my submittals, at least 4%. That includes the ones I developed before I moved and are now not local to me. Though, now I adoped many of those out. I tried to select local cachers when I adoped them out, but due to location that didn't always happen.

I will say that many of my caches would fall under the vacation cache rule. I will continue to develop these vacation EarthCaches, and if I have to find some local cacher to submit them, so be it. I will be disappointed and development will just take a bit longer. I still want to contribute to the geocaching community and have fun doing it. I am defiantly on the side against banning vacation based EarthCaches. Based on the 10000+ logs for these EarthCaches listed from my vacations, I conclude that they have been a positive contribution to the geocaching community. They have been appreciated for not only their educational value, but also the variety of finds they are from the generic container find. These are sediments pulled directly from the logs not my own impression or wishful thinking. I suggest you go through and read some of the logs for yourself before label us interlopers and categorizing EarthCaches placed while on vacations virtual dumps. I have been instrumental in developing EarthCaches in National Parks, educating staff about EarthCaches, and even opening up some parks that had outright banned any kind of caching at all. These were done on vacation. There is already an EarthCache policy that does not allow the placement of an EarthCache that repeats the same geologic information of any other type of cache in the same location. Expanding or providing different information is allowed. The use of interloper and virtual dump on top of a perfectly placed ammo box implies that cachers have some implicit ownership over an area. That idea I feel is contrary to the geocaching.com ideals that anyone can develop/place any kind of cache. I have made repeated offers to help others develop EarthCaches, so I sure don't have that idea about placing EarthCaches. There have been a few I even gave all my research away so that others could develop their EarthCaches. I don't think the geocaching community would support your ideas on area ownership. They would support you in preventing geotrash as previously mentioned by others.

We won't get into coprolites I am definitely going to visit that one when I'm in the area! I'll make sure to bring my paddle too! Then you wouldn't be up a creek...

The EC Masters requirement is to visit ECs in multiple states/countries. The creation requirement does not need to be in multiple states.

We won't get into coprolites

With the vacation rule, that will eliminate about 20 I'm waiting for approval on. I'll have to see if there are any cachers in the areas by contacting the few traditionals that are in the area to see if they are willing to submit them for me. A few are in Wilderness areas, so nobody lives anywhere close to them and even the traditionals don't have local cachers. I am happy to see the submittal go to geocaching.com. I'll be able to add the images and formatting for the reviewer to see during the approval process. I'm looking forward to the smoother submittal process.