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Geocachers Get Bad Wrap In Appleton, Wisconsin


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This came across my google alerts today.

 

Rude cachers or oversensitive gardener? You decide:

 

Link to original story: http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...1/60716014/1979

 

Tech hunters wreck garden

 

By Steve Wideman

Post-Crescent staff writer

 

APPLETON — They aren’t exactly death rays being projected from outer space, but Ald. Walter Kalata is convinced signals beamed from satellites destroyed his special garden in the city’s smallest park.

 

High-tech scavenger hunts using global positioning devices are being blamed for causing damage to several parks in Appleton in addition to Union Springs Park in the heart of downtown Appleton.

 

“It’s been kind of an irritating thing,” said Kalata, who planted dozens of flowers at Union Springs, a park not much bigger than a typical office cubicle which is home to an artesian well popular with residents.

 

Participants in a newer sport known as “geocaching” have uprooted or trampled most of the flowers planted early this spring in Union Springs Park by Kalata.

 

The park in the 300 block of N. Union St. is 19 feet wide and 30 feet long and features an artesian well and hand pump allowing residents to draw water from the well that originally served the former Lutz Ice Co. in the late 1880s. The park also sports a single pine tree, two cherry trees and a birch tree along with Kalata’s struggling garden.

 

“I planted things like bachelor buttons, daisies and gladiolas,” Kalata said.

 

“The thing would have been a carpet of flowers, but I guess it was never meant to be. Just the gladiolas have come up and they are in their embryonic stage.”

 

Geocaching involves using a portable Global Positioning System (GPS) device to receive satellite signals leading the participant through clues to a “cache,” most often a logbook or small prize.

 

The location of the logbook or prize is called a waypoint.

 

The waypoint in one contest is apparently Union Springs Park , Kalata said.

 

“Just last week one guy was standing in Union Springs Park with his GPS unit. Others pull on the tree branches. It was ridiculous. People need to get a life,” Kalata said.

 

He said one woman dug up some flowers attempting to find the prize.

 

“I have no idea what the prize is, but it must be good because everyone is looking for it,” Kalata said.

 

Parks and Recreation Director William Decker said he was not familiar with specific problems with geocaching at Union Springs Park.

 

“There is geocaching going on throughout the country,” Lecker said. “We have not had any problems with it to my knowledge.”

 

But Kalata said he learned from one parks official that Appleton parks are listed at waypoints on a Web site www.geocaching.com.

 

The site is operated by an organization by the name of Groundspeak based in Seattle, Wash.

 

Steve Wideman can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 302, or by e-mail at swideman@postcrescent.com

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This came across my google alerts today.

 

Rude cachers or oversensitive gardener? You decide:

I'd say a little of both.

 

“Just last week one guy was standing in Union Springs Park with his GPS unit.

Oh no! A guy was standing in a park? Let's shut this "geocaching" thing down immediately!!!!

 

Others pull on the tree branches. It was ridiculous. People need to get a life,” Kalata said.

As long as they're not doing damage to the tree it shouldn't make a difference what they're doing. And why do people suggest we need to "get a life" just because they don't understand what geocaching is?

 

He said one woman dug up some flowers attempting to find the prize.

I doubt it. If she's digging up flowers my guess is she's stealing them. No caches from this site are buried, and none would require the removal of flowers to find the log book. Either that's a complete newbie at the game or she's a flower thief.

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If the gardener is quoted properly, then he is a very bad gardener. I find hyperbole to be terribly abused as a literary style. This reeks of hyperbole. Gladiolas do not grow from embryos, they grow from bulbs or corms. It sounds as though he should have used some fertilizer in his garden.

That being said, it is entirely possible that some people have tromped though his garden. The interesting thing is that there is no evidence, other than the use of a GPS, that the trompers were geocachers. Perhaps they are looking for the buried car? Uprooting? Digging? No reputable geocacher would do that!

This would appear to be the cache in question: City Park. We wonder if the gardener had receied adequate approval for the garden? But, that's beside the point.

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This came across my google alerts today.

 

Rude cachers or oversensitive gardener? You decide:

 

Link to original story: http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...1/60716014/1979

 

Tech hunters wreck garden...

I also noticed this one on Google today. However, you have apparently added a whole new dimension to the tale -- one not covered in the original article -- wherein you now assert that people in Appleton wrap up geocachers and do a bad job of it. I wonder who the people are who are wrapping up the geocachers, what kind of wrap are they using (i.e., old newspapers, brown kraft paper, wax paper, Tyvek buildng wrap, etc... and what you mean when you say that they were badly wrapped. Do you mean that the wrapping looks messy, or that not enough tape was used, or that the cachers came unwrapped, or that the cachers were wrapped so tightly that they could not breathe? Thanks!

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Well I hope the best for all the cachers in the area and say good luck to the Gizfinder.. I bet the gardener is sitting in the bushes with his bino's watching all the cachers... hope you have lots of replacement caches. Hate to see the bad publicity.. We love Geocaching, I thought us getting out as a family helping the environment(CITO) was our way of getting a life. Guess Not! oh well back to caching.. Peace

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Couldn't possibly be animals eating his bulbs now could it? Raccoons (know this from experience) LOVE flower bulbs. Or, could it possibly be local kids/teens with nothing better to do? Or, couldn't possibly be the people going to the artesian well in the same park trampling the flowers. It's sad that the story is only one sided. Maybe a local could contact the writer and give them "the rest of the story."

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I also noticed this one on Google today. However, you have apparently added a whole new dimension to the tale -- one not covered in the original article -- wherein you now assert that people in Appleton wrap up geocachers and do a bad job of it. I wonder who the people are who are wrapping up the geocachers, what kind of wrap are they using (i.e., old newspapers, brown kraft paper, wax paper, Tyvek buildng wrap, etc... and what you mean when you say that they were badly wrapped. Do you mean that the wrapping looks messy, or that not enough tape was used, or that the cachers came unwrapped, or that the cachers were wrapped so tightly that they could not breathe? Thanks!

 

Wow... One little extra "w" garners all this attention. B)

Mea culpa

:laughing:

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Was wondering if anybody commented to the reporter on how they felt about this article? I just finished emailing him that I felt the article was extremely biased and he should have given the wisconsin geocaching association a chance to rebute the article. Also pointed out several areas that he violated on their ethics page.

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Couldn't possibly be animals eating his bulbs now could it? Raccoons (know this from experience) LOVE flower bulbs. Or, could it possibly be local kids/teens with nothing better to do? Or, couldn't possibly be the people going to the artesian well in the same park trampling the flowers. It's sad that the story is only one sided. Maybe a local could contact the writer and give them "the rest of the story."

I'm sure it also has nothing to do with the fact that this 620 sq. ft. park is on the edge of a parking lot behind a downtown bar that has been known for underage drinking and 2am scuffles either. Kalata is the one who needs to get a life, IMO.

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From the article:

A geocaching enthusiast who identified himself only as Mark O. in an e-mail to The Post-Crescent said Monday he placed the cache in Union Springs, but removed it after learning about Kalata's concerns in the newspaper.
But the cache is still listed as active.
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This is the post I found most interesting on the WGA web forum:

 

"I will chime in with my two Cents worth. as it looks like I was the last to find!

 

It all started for me on July Eigth. I went out on a caching day with Coastiegirl04. We hit about 30 Caches that day. This was one of them. We got to this park at aproximately 7:30pm. There were two other cars in the parking lot for one of the bars across the street. We spent about two minutes looking for the cache, never leaving the concrete patch. We saw a white note hanging in the tree near the cache location. The note said

 

" No prize here Suckers, how does it feel to be had??

HaHaHa"

 

I posted my DNF, and mentioned that the cache container was not there.

 

That was it until I read the post from Crazy Buzzard saying that the cache was there a few days later. I then went to attempt it again on my lunch break. This was about 1:30. Cache container was again gone, and in it's place, another white note. I took the note home with me, and was planning on giving it to Crazy buzzard at the Puzzle event in manitowoc that Thursday.

 

I then went back again the next day at 7:00am the next day, and the cache container was back, so I sighned the log, and there was no note. Same day four hours later at about 11:30, cache container was gone, and another note.

 

Absolutely no flowers were destroyed before, or during, or after the time when I was there. As I stated before, you didn't have to come anywhere near the flowers or even leave the concrete!!! I never even searched near the flowers, as that is not where the GPS was leading!!!.

 

With how the note was there, then gone, then there, then gone, someone was obviously playing games, and I would tend to beleive they had some doing with this.

 

We all know, a "Geocacher" would have no reason to dig up flowers, and I for sure know myself, and all of the geocachers that I have meet would not trample them either.

 

I think what we are dealing with here, is a Gentleman who planted flowers on his own time, in a park that he does not own, and then complains when they don't last. I wonder if any of the "under the influence: patrons from the local drinking establishments had anything to do with this?

 

I will be more than happy to speak with anybody in regards to this, and hope all is resolved soon. "

 

I, lonesumdove, also plan on sending an e-mail to the crummy newspaper that did not show both sides of the story accurately here. I agree, they ought to get the guy out of his stuffy office chair and out to a few caches so he knows what goes on. Lastly, I think the bar patrons are having a good laugh at geocachers' expense... :laughing::laughing:

Edited by lonesumdove
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I live in Appleton, Wisconsin, and have found the cache in City Park. City Park is a large park downtown, not the small park creating all the controversy- Union Springs Park. As far as I know, the listing for the disputed cache has been removed. I haven't found the cache in Union Springs Park. I believe the name of the cache was "Lutz Ice Company," but I don't know any other information. The logs on the City Park page are just to talk about it, since the cache is question is gone. I'm not positive about any of this!

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Being that it is a small park, (19 feet X 30 feet), and that the cache is a micro, perhaps it needs a hint? :laughing:

On the other hand, it's a tiny park with fewer spots to search. A number of cachers apparently found the cache (without doing any damage), so I doubt that a hint would be necessary. It's a moot point, since the cache has apparently been delisted.

 

EDITed to mention that the cache was 'small'. It wasn't a micro.

Edited by sbell111
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You folks can argue this to death here but remember that perception is reality. Make up reasons why the park was trampled, the flowers pulled, and his garden destroyed, tell them to each other all you want, but the "reality" in this case is that geocaching caused it all and therefore is a Bad Thing in Appleton.

 

The power of the press at work in our society.

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You folks can argue this to death here but remember that perception is reality. Make up reasons why the park was trampled, the flowers pulled, and his garden destroyed, tell them to each other all you want, but the "reality" in this case is that geocaching caused it all and therefore is a Bad Thing in Appleton.

 

The power of the press at work in our society.

The only power they have is the power that you give them. Hit them hard with emails and phone calls. After that, start in on their competition; other newspapers, television news, radio stations.

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I live in Oshkosh, about 25 south and have been to the cache. My husband works for the city of Appleton and told me that he spoke with the Rec. Dept director regarding this and was told that he has never had any complains about cachers and has no problems with geocaches in the city. My husband said that the Alderman in question is not liked by anyone at the city. All he does is complain about everything without doing any research to back up his complaints. He has some pull at the paper and they seem to hang on his every word, to the dismay of everyone who works for the city. They never know what idiotic thing he is going to say next. I just got done sending a letter to the editor of the PC. Frankly, I am getting sick of that biased newspaper and this was the last straw. I told them they need to get their facts straight and do some research. The comment about digging up the flowers just set me off! I made them aware of the fact that caches are never buried and that they better read up on caching and print a retraction as far as the unfounded accusation. I don't know if anything will make them shape up, but it made me feel better!

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I just got done sending a letter to the editor of the PC. Frankly, I am getting sick of that biased newspaper and this was the last straw. I told them they need to get their facts straight and do some research.

 

Funny. The Post-Crescent also ran this article Well, I'd be sick of a paper that can't make up its mind about geocaching :laughing:

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My personal experience tells me there could be some truth in that article. I'm a geocaching volunteer for the Cleveland Metroparks. One of the caches I monitor was placed in a large hollow log. Now that large hollow log is a smashed up pile of wood. The cache is now hidden under some bark and remaining pieces of the log. This is the second cache in 3 years that had the hiding spot meet the same fate.

 

I've also seen other areas get worked over fairly well by geocachers. It's very frustrating. I'm convinced most geocachers are good land stewarts but there is a large enough segment of the caching population that doesn't seem to care that makes us all look bad.

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One of the caches I monitor was placed in a large hollow log. Now that large hollow log is a smashed up pile of wood. The cache is now hidden under some bark and remaining pieces of the log

 

Hollow logs tend to fall apart eventually. I guess a geocache hidden in one may hasten that, but you really can't blame geocachers.

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My personal experience tells me there could be some truth in that article. I'm a geocaching volunteer for the Cleveland Metroparks. One of the caches I monitor was placed in a large hollow log. Now that large hollow log is a smashed up pile of wood. The cache is now hidden under some bark and remaining pieces of the log. This is the second cache in 3 years that had the hiding spot meet the same fate.

 

I've also seen other areas get worked over fairly well by geocachers. It's very frustrating. I'm convinced most geocachers are good land stewarts but there is a large enough segment of the caching population that doesn't seem to care that makes us all look bad.

 

I had a hollow log in my yard once. I hardly ever looked at it. After about 3 years it was a pile of hollow log rubble. These things happen - especially in wet climates.

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One of the caches I monitor was placed in a large hollow log. Now that large hollow log is a smashed up pile of wood. The cache is now hidden under some bark and remaining pieces of the log

 

Hollow logs tend to fall apart eventually. I guess a geocache hidden in one may hasten that, but you really can't blame geocachers.

 

Unfortunately in this case it can only be blamed on geocachers. The nature of the damage is completely unnatural. I've spent enough time in the woods to recognize mother nature in action versus the hand of man.

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I realize the seriousness of being respectful of nature and your surroundings. I really think most cachers do this. But really, you are worried about a rotting log? Don't even get me started on the ways that government, private business, cars, aerosol cans, etc... etc... destroy the environment. I think we have bigger things to worry about and that rotted log is natures food for the next tree or tree eating insect. As long as no one is taking a buzz saw and cutting down live healthy trees... there are alot more serious things to worry about. IMO.

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I've also seen other areas get worked over fairly well by geocachers. It's very frustrating. I'm convinced most geocachers are good land stewarts but there is a large enough segment of the caching population that doesn't seem to care that makes us all look bad.

 

Cache owners are sometimes responsible that "areas get worked over fairly well by geocachers". A well hidden cache will cause searchers to step, poke, rake, and otherwise cause damage to an area. A good hint would alleviate a lot of damage (and frustration). IMHO, well hidden caches that require long searches in very public places are not much fun.

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This sounds like the time last year when geocachers were digging up a historic cemetary looking for a virtual cache in Canada. Since there was a cache listed there and there were holes there, it must be the cachers making the holes. There were even witnesses who saw them with their metal detectors and shovels!

I think it took around 2 days to get retractions published on that one.

 

Wulf

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Cachers can be our own worst enemy and generate the negative impression of our hobby. We watched a middle aged cacher at a somewhat similar park that had a patch of prairie grass about 10'X10'. This cacher had a golf club and was swinging like a weed whip knocking down the grass and then he'd dig thru the grass. He evetually found the cache stuck under the bench. What kind of impression did he make representing cachers?

Anyone who has cached any time at all and hiked into any heavily cached wooded area has seen geo-trails which are quite evident where cachers have stomped around looking for the cache.

So do cachers get a bad wrap? Not hardly, there are cachers who give us a bad wrap.

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Anyone who has cached any time at all and hiked into any heavily cached wooded area has seen geo-trails which are quite evident where cachers have stomped around looking for the cache.

So do cachers get a bad wrap? Not hardly, there are cachers who give us a bad wrap.

 

600+ cache searches 160+ hides under my belt and I've encountered maybe 3 of these. In each case it was because the cache was right next to a trail. I'm not including a bit of trampled grass which is hardly damage.

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Cachers can be our own worst enemy and generate the negative impression of our hobby. We watched a middle aged cacher at a somewhat similar park that had a patch of prairie grass about 10'X10'. This cacher had a golf club and was swinging like a weed whip knocking down the grass and then he'd dig thru the grass. He evetually found the cache stuck under the bench. What kind of impression did he make representing cachers?

Anyone who has cached any time at all and hiked into any heavily cached wooded area has seen geo-trails which are quite evident where cachers have stomped around looking for the cache.

So do cachers get a bad wrap? Not hardly, there are cachers who give us a bad wrap.

I'm sorry, but your post just doesn't ring true to me.

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The thing that really kills me about this cache is that the coordinates are dead on and lead you to the pinetree right next to the sidewalk, which is on the opposite side of this little park from the flowers in question. It was a matchstick container and it was quite visible compared to most caches (which is probably why it was taken on many occasions.) I don't know of any cachers in this area that would tear up flowers, especially to just get to a cache that was accessible by concrete on three sides (sidewalk on one, parking lot on the other, little paved sitting area on the other. The fourth side is a bench which I had to stand on to reach the cache because I am too darn short). Appleton Park and Rec. is completely aware of most of the locations of the caches in the area, since one of guys in management is a cacher himself. This guy frequently checks for any signs of damage at cache areas and has yet to find any problems. He has also hidden a couple himself. He was also upset about the accusations but said to consider the source.

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I'm sorry to admit that I have seen cache sites that looked like a Bear had turned over every rock in sight looking for grubs.

Maybe the local caching comunity could make nice, and chip in and plant some new flowers.

It can't be that big of a patch looking at the photo.

Two days after in incident (which was monday), a local florist replaced the flowers and it got another write up in the paper. This one said,

Posted July 19, 2006

 

Appleton park gets redo after geocacher trashing

 

By Steve Wideman

Post-Crescent staff writer

 

APPLETON — The city's smallest park is now a carpet of flowers, much to the joy of Ald. Walter Kalata.

 

Union Springs Park, a 19-by-30-foot patch of dirt and small trees surrounded by asphalt three blocks off College Avenue, is awash in wave petunias that replace the ones Kalata said were killed by people apparently engaged in a high-tech scavenger hunt.

 

Memorial Florists & Greenhouses of Appleton planted the flowers Tuesday, said owner Tom Aykens.

 

"We filled that flower bed and made it look nice," Aykens said.

 

Kalata had planted flowers in the park early this spring, but said many of the flowers recently were uprooted by people apparently looking for clues in an Internet challenge called geocaching. The game involves using online clues and global positioning system devices to pinpoint locations, called waypoints.

 

Kalata said Union Springs Park was listed as a location, or waypoint, on one geocaching site and prompted some scavengers to dig up portions of the park in search of prizes.

 

A geocaching enthusiast who identified himself only as Mark O. in an e-mail to The Post-Crescent said Monday he placed the cache in Union Springs, but removed it after learning about Kalata's concerns in the newspaper.

 

"My intention when I placed this cache in August of 2005 was to introduce local and out-of-town geocachers to this unique little park and the history surrounding it, not the destruction of it," Mark O. wrote.

 

Aykens read the same article in The Post-Crescent regarding Kalata's concerns.

 

"I felt kind of bad to see that happen," Aykens said. "So I called him and said we would be over there to plant some flowers if he would water them."

 

That's no problem for Kalata, who lives adjacent to the park, which is noted for an artesian well. "They ought to be good for at least two more months," he said.

 

Steve Wideman can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 302, or by e-mail at swideman@postcrescent.com.

Edited by yearwood_3
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I'm sorry, but your post just doesn't ring true to me.

 

Sorry, but what we saw happened. We pulled up to the cache location when we saw the other guy already there so we watched him swinging away with his golf club.

As far as the geo-trails, if you haven't seen them then you haven't been looking. Some areas have more than just grass knocked down from walking. Some places the vegetation just doesn't grow back with the next rain. Some take years to recover. Creating new trails in some locations can lead to excessive and damaging erosion. Seen rock gardens that have had every rock overturned. Just read a few logs of caches hidden in some pretty densely wooded areas. The cache may have been hidden next to a regular paved trail yet there will be logs from caches talking about bushwacking long distances. Obviously if they had stayed on the normal trails there would have been no need for bushwacking. I disabled my first cache hide because of too much bushwacking which caused a bare trail which led to erosion of an area.

Unthinking cachers cause these problems. They are slob hunters just as in every hobby. If you haven't seen it then you haven't been looking.

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600+ cache searches 160+ hides under my belt and I've encountered maybe 3 of these. In each case it was because the cache was right next to a trail. I'm not including a bit of trampled grass which is hardly damage.

 

I've seen a lot more than 3. See it a lot more in the more wooded areas where people will follow the arrow but not the path. I've seen it a bit in urban locales too. There are just plain slobs no matter what the hobby who don't think. Saw the result of one not too long ago. A cache was hidden in a small town park in a tree about 10 ft off the ground. Someone had driven their car up to the tree and cut some pretty good ruts in the grass. From the ruts it appeared they used their vehicle to get the height to reach the cache. Now if everyone who had looked for that cache had driven their vehicle to that tree the damage would have been multiplied and worse that it was. Now what kind of image do you think that cache hunter left with the town maintenance person or anyone else who may have seen them?

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As far as the geo-trails, if you haven't seen them then you haven't been looking. Some areas have more than just grass knocked down from walking. Some places the vegetation just doesn't grow back with the next rain. Some take years to recover. Creating new trails in some locations can lead to excessive and damaging erosion. Seen rock gardens that have had every rock overturned. Just read a few logs of caches hidden in some pretty densely wooded areas. The cache may have been hidden next to a regular paved trail yet there will be logs from caches talking about bushwacking long distances. Obviously if they had stayed on the normal trails there would have been no need for bushwacking.

 

I've heard so much about these geo trails that I have been looking. The few I've seen were just trampled grass, which will recover within a few days. Only once have I seen a compacted treadway devoid of vegetation

leading to a cache. It was about 6 feet from a parking lot.

 

I surmise that in the instances where this does happen it would be with extremely popular caches, which tend to be highly accessible caches in urban parks. These kinds of parks are filled with dozens of these kinds of trails so I hardly see an environmental disaster.

 

I really don't see an issue with bushwacking to caches deep in the woods. The chances of everyone taking an identical route is slim, so the impact is spread out and the area has time to recover. That and these caches tend to have relatively few visits compared to urban and suburban hides.

 

Overturning rocks, while unsightly for a while and not a good image for geocachers is generally harmless. If it was harmful we'd have to shoot every bear who rips up rocks to look for grubs. Did you ever see the mess that a hungry bear leaves?

 

Finally, how sure are you that these trails didn't predate the caches. I know when I'm venturing off trail to place a cache in the woods, I tend to follow existing game trails. To the untrained eye it may seem that the cache was the reason for the trail, when in reality the trail is the reason the cache is there.

Edited by briansnat
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i'm not here to make any judgments about any newspaper or any alderman. my concern is that, due to the series of articles that were run in the newspaper, some evil muggle who needs to get a life (whoops! sorry!) might get the impression that geocaching is a way to vandalize something... that'd really bring down the opinion of geocachers, and it'd be no real geocacher's fault.

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Overturning rocks, while unsightly for a while and not a good image for geocachers is generally harmless. If it was harmful we'd have to shoot every bear who rips up rocks to look for grubs. Did you ever see the mess that a hungry bear leaves?

 

Finally, how sure are you that these trails didn't predate the caches. I know when I'm venturing off trail to place a cache in the woods, I tend to follow existing game trails. To the untrained eye it may seem that the cache was the reason for the trail, when in reality the trail is the reason the cache is there.

 

RE rocks - the discussion is about the gardens being disrupted. Now if the bears are trampling the gardens like described in Appleton then the cachers obviously aren't to blame and the city would be free to run the bears out of town. However, in such a setting where cachers are overturning rocks, digging thru flower beds, and trampling the vegetation then that is irresponsible behavior, which you can't blame on the bears. Saw a small city garden in the median in Pensacola last spring that had been gone thru pretty rough. Was it cachers? Who knows but there was a cache hidden there, which with a bit of looking didn't require all the damage. I don't think the free roaming bears in Pensacola caused the damage.

You may follow the pre-existing game trails, and probably most would too, but not everyone does. A cuople of years ago we were at a cache hidden along a bluff on the Mississippi River. To get to it, the right was, take the switchback trail to near the bottom and the cache was along the trail about 5 ft behind a bench. While we were on the bench signing the log another cacher came sliding down the embankment knocking rocks loose around us, tearing out the grasses and vegetation, and leaving a pretty wide path. I commented to him that it would have been easier for him to take the trail. He responded that his arrow pointed in that direction and he wasn't sure where the trail went. He didn't care that he'd tore out a lot of the vegetation which in this part would lead to serious erosion but he also didn't care he was raining rocks and dirt on us at the bench. This was no kid. He was at least in his 40s.

If you hunt any caches in the high Rockies you'll be in tundra area. Causing geo-trails in tundra or tearing up the terrain isn't recovered with the next rain. It might take many decades for that to fully recover.

There are slobs in our hobby, just as there is in any hobby. There's no need for blindly stepping with no disregard for the environment or terrain. Geocachers preach the CITO but how many realize there's more to being environmentally friendly than just picking up a piece of trash.

So are you implying there are no cachers out there causing damage? I hope no one is that naive.

Edited by Wadcutter
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I know it wasn't your intention to sound like you were blaming cachers for the Appleton mess but that is how it comes across and I just wanted to get some facts out there because I live in the area, have been to the cache and my husband works for the city of Appleton and knows quite a bit about the trouble this alderman likes to stir up without merit.

Just wanted to clarify for you that the "gardens" in question was a piece of dirt 2'x1' on the opposite side of the "park" as the cache. As I stated above, the waypoints for this cache are dead on and it was in a pine on the opposite side of the park surrounded on three sides by concrete and the fourth a bench. Also, there are no rocks to overturn in this Park. It is not really even a park . Just a sitting area created on the corner of a parking lot behind a bar to mark the historic well spot. A couple trees, a couple shrubs, two benches and the well. The dirt area surrounds the shrub planting and was not intended to even be a garden. An alderman who happens to live above the bar has a window facing the parking lot and took it upon himself to plant the plants and create what he calls his garden, which in fact is city property.

Edited by yearwood_3
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So are you implying there are no cachers out there causing damage? I hope no one is that naive.

 

No, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but in my experience its pretty rare. Too often geocachers are being blamed for damage caused by others and as I mentioned earlier, many of these so called geo-trails were there before the cache. Sure there are slob cachers out there.

 

The one actual study about the impact of geocaching I know of was done by NY state's Department of Environmental Conservation. They had a long standing geocaching ban on all lands they manage (game lands, state forests and forest preserves). They sent employees to examine cache sites throughout the state.

Their conclusion? Geocaching is a benign activity with minimal impact. As a result they lifted the ban on all their lands (the only restriction being at least a .25 mile separation) and even opened their state constitutionally protected forest preserves to geocaching. No geocacher ever dreamed they would allow us in the forest preserves.

Edited by briansnat
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