Earth Caches in the UK

[+Captain Gore-tex]

This is excellent news. I have wanted to post an Eartcache for a really important site near me for ages. Having gone onto GC.com I found no option to post an Earthcache so went onto Waymarking.com and generated one simply enough and am awaiting approval. Am I right in thinking it will migrate over to GC.com by some mystical power wielded by the UK reviewers or will further work need to be done by yours truly?

[alistair_uk]

Just to let you all know that England and Scotland are considered separate countries according to the Earthcaching team and I now have my Bronze pin that I will be wearing with pride at the next Geo event.

[+maxkim]

I have a couple of educational virtual caches in the pipeline just in case.....

[+Teuchters]

This is excellent news. I have wanted to post an Eartcache for a really important site near me for ages. Having gone onto GC.com I found no option to post an Earthcache so went onto Waymarking.com and generated one simply enough and am awaiting approval. Am I right in thinking it will migrate over to GC.com by some mystical power wielded by the UK reviewers or will further work need to be done by yours truly?

 

UK reviewers, in the past, have not had anything to do with Earthcaches. I think this is still the same (??)

Earthcaches are administered directly from the US at Earthcache.org which is part of the Geological Society of America. They have an agreement with Geocaching.com / Groundspeak.

 

My advice (for what it is worth) is to ensure that the educational aspects of the "new" system are in place for your Earthcache on Waymarking.com and then drop the Earthcache reviewers a note so they know it has been done. This will save them the task of manually checking Earthcaches on Waymarking.com looking for the amendments.

In due course, it should then make a transfer over to GC.com.

I was fortunate in that my earthcaches remained on GC.com as "grandfathered" caches - however the changes have still been made.

 

Apologies to any out there if this is not correct. Posted in anticipation of being helpful!!

[+The Blorenges]

We've just spent an enjoyable couple of hours on a river bank doing The Severn Bore Earthcache. It has simple requirements to log it: Take a couple of pictures and then record the predicted time of the bore with the actual "arrival" time. It was late this morning... too many leaves on the river, maybe?

MrsB

[Lactodorum]

This is excellent news. I have wanted to post an Eartcache for a really important site near me for ages. Having gone onto GC.com I found no option to post an Earthcache so went onto Waymarking.com and generated one simply enough and am awaiting approval. Am I right in thinking it will migrate over to GC.com by some mystical power wielded by the UK reviewers or will further work need to be done by yours truly?

 

UK reviewers, in the past, have not had anything to do with Earthcaches. I think this is still the same (??)

Earthcaches are administered directly from the US at Earthcache.org which is part of the Geological Society of America. They have an agreement with Geocaching.com / Groundspeak.

 

My advice (for what it is worth) is to ensure that the educational aspects of the "new" system are in place for your Earthcache on Waymarking.com and then drop the Earthcache reviewers a note so they know it has been done. This will save them the task of manually checking Earthcaches on Waymarking.com looking for the amendments.

In due course, it should then make a transfer over to GC.com.

I was fortunate in that my earthcaches remained on GC.com as "grandfathered" caches - however the changes have still been made.

 

Apologies to any out there if this is not correct. Posted in anticipation of being helpful!!

Quite correct! Many thanks for outlining the position so well, it saves us some typing

[+wizard1974uk]

So what has the Geological Society of America got to do with earthcaches in the UK? Why can't the UK reviewers approve such caches for the UK?

[+TerryDad2]

So what has the Geological Society of America got to do with earthcaches in the UK? Why can't the UK reviewers approve such caches for the UK?

The GSA is the sponsor of the program and got Groundspeak to allow them on. They only review the listings for technical correctness and the educational requirement. Then the listing is sent through the regular channels for review by the Groundspeak reviewers for cache placement appropriateness.

 

I would expect that if the local geological association would want to join into the program, GSA would be pleased to have the added exposure and help in reviewing the incoming listings.

[+wizard1974uk]

So what has the Geological Society of America got to do with earthcaches in the UK? Why can't the UK reviewers approve such caches for the UK?

The GSA is the sponsor of the program and got Groundspeak to allow them on. They only review the listings for technical correctness and the educational requirement. Then the listing is sent through the regular channels for review by the Groundspeak reviewers for cache placement appropriateness.

 

I would expect that if the local geological association would want to join into the program, GSA would be pleased to have the added exposure and help in reviewing the incoming listings.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, thought it was a little strange.

[Deceangi]

From the faq's on Earthcache.org

 

Why is it that Americans are approving caches from other countries?

EarthCaches all have one fundamental goal — to educate the visitor. This is judged by the EarthCache team, which happens to part of the Geological Society of America. The team is not just US-based. The EarthCache Master lives in Australia, and has a small group of people who discuss the appropriateness of some caches. This group has representatives from the UK, Germany, Canada and the USA.

All EarthCaches, once approved by the EarthCache team, go to Geocaching.com for the normal approval process.

 

So the senior Earthcache reviewer is an Aussie who is a member of a Global Earthcache Reviewer team

[+The Golem]

I've been thinking about creating an earthcache, with regard to the educational aspect I was thinking of having a very basic cache page with just the details of how to get there. The idea is that people have to include a new fact about the place in their log. This would encourage people to read previous logs to make sure they weren't duplicating information and they would learn something in the process.

 

There are a few issues about creating an earthcache that I find a little odd - why is permission from the landowner required and why do they need to be maintainable? It don't make sense!

[Deceangi]

There are a few issues about creating an earthcache that I find a little odd - why is permission from the landowner required

 

When you submit any cache you agree that you have adequate permission for that cache.

 

and why do they need to be maintainable? It don't make sense!

 

So as to check that access to the location is possible, even land which is Open Access can be closed of for up to 28 days and the landowner can apply to extend this.

 

The area could be damaged by a natural act or even worse by human intervention [do a search for news of SSSI's which have been illegally damaged by the landowner].

 

The owner of the Earthcache is responsible for insuring that access is possible and that the reason the Earthcache is there still exists, and not be reliant of searchers logs to for the status of the Earthcache.

 

And before anyone brings it up the recent Earthcache Event even though listed as being owned by someone in the states was organised by and is owned by the Clwydian Range AONB Geodiversity Officer. The listing for Earthcaches can take several weeks to be put into the placers account from the Earthcache reviewers account. So it's not been placed by someone thousands of miles away.

[+kewfriend]

I've had a reply to an email today saying that reviews of existing WayMark Earthcaches will start at the end of the week for consideration of transfer to GC.COM.

[+Captain Gore-tex]

That is excellent news. Still waiting for a first to find on my waypoint earthcache, despite it being visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors each year! I give it less than one day after it transfers over to GC. Hopefully this will open up loads of really interesting areas in the UK.

[+kewfriend]

and now the 'News Extra': my existing GC Earthcache has just been reviewed and found not to be within the new guidelines. I have submitted a revision. Lets see what happens.

[nobby.nobbs]

both of mine have been reviewed and have been passed as ok. i only needed to amend them slightly prior to the assesment so shouldn't be hard to get yours to be approved

[+kewfriend]

Hi, As part of the process of EarthCaches returning to geocaching.com, every EarthCache is reviewed to ensure that each EarthCache listing adheres to the new guidelines. We wanted to inform you that this EarthCache has been reviewed and successfully meets the new guidelines.

 

Regards. Geoaware

Once an Earthcache has this little label, as mine now does, its considered OK.

[+Chris n Maria]

So Earthcaches are being returned as part of "Grounspeaks comitment to education"...hmmm

 

Groundspeak own Waymarking.com - so why arn't earthcaches educational there? Why do they suddenly become educational on the GC.com site?

 

Looks to me to be an admission that the only purpose of Waymarking.com was to get rid of all those pesky locationless and virtuals to a place where noone would disturb them!

 

Chris

[+Alibags]

Mine is now reviewed and okay too, although I did amend the requirements slightly. Wonder if it would have passed without that? Hmmm. Never mind, a spot of googling is good for the soul!

[+Bambi&Thumper]

So Earthcaches are being returned as part of "Grounspeaks comitment to education"...hmmm

 

Groundspeak own Waymarking.com - so why arn't earthcaches educational there? Why do they suddenly become educational on the GC.com site?

 

Looks to me to be an admission that the only purpose of Waymarking.com was to get rid of all those pesky locationless and virtuals to a place where noone would disturb them!

 

Chris

 

My guess is that, like every thing, it's to do with funding. I don't know, but I suspect that the GSA sponsor Earth Caches. I'm guessing that since ECs have been moved the number of visits has dropped significantly and the GSA have threatened to withdraw their support...

 

Now, Jeremy and TPTB justified the creation of that other site by saying that Virtual and Locationless Caches were "broken". This return of Earth Caches suggests that ECs aren't broken and my understanding is that this is because they have independent reviewers who assess the "quality" of the caches.

 

So, if I'm right with the reason for the return of ECs, this suggests that there could be a future for Virts if a few interested parties (e.g. historical society, arts society, science society) could get together and agree to assess the educational quality of caches and offer a bit of sponsorship...

 

But I'm guessing it'll never happen.

 

B.

[+TerryDad2]

I just had my first waymark earthcache transferred to gc.com. Geoaware moved all the description and sent me an adoption notice. I accepted the adoption and edited the owner and all was done. I took the precaution to move the images my html references to gc in case the archiving of the waymarks makes the images unavailable.

[+Jaz666]

I see that the promise that any Earthcache which doesn't meet the new guidelines by 20th October hasn't been fulfilled.

 

Just an observation.

[+Jaz666]

I see that the promise that any Earthcache which doesn't meet the new guidelines by 20th October hasn't been fulfilled.

 

Just an observation.

 

Six UK Earthcaches have now been archived as they weren't changed, sadly including Billy Twigger's 3 caches.

 

Breakdown in communication somewhere?

[Deceangi]

I see that the promise that any Earthcache which doesn't meet the new guidelines by 20th October hasn't been fulfilled.

 

Just an observation.

 

Six UK Earthcaches have now been archived as they weren't changed, sadly including Billy Twigger's 3 caches.

 

Breakdown in communication somewhere?

 

I've made contact with Groundspeak about Billy's Earth Caches, I'm also starting a process of getting them updated to the new logging requirements. As this process's requires permission off Billy, I have to obtain permission through someone who is in contact with his family, before getting the help of local cachers in producing the required educational question. As this process is going to take several weeks, please be patient with me over this issue.

 

Deceangi

[+Jaz666]

Great news.

I highly doubt I'd ever be in a position to log any of Billy's caches, but some part of me wouldn't let this pass without kicking up a fuss

[+Haggis Hunter]

I've made contact with Groundspeak about Billy's Earth Caches, I'm also starting a process of getting them updated to the new logging requirements. As this process's requires permission off Billy, I have to obtain permission through someone who is in contact with his family, before getting the help of local cachers in producing the required educational question. As this process is going to take several weeks, please be patient with me over this issue.

 

Deceangi

I think Firth of Forth may be the best person for you to get in touch with for the contact with his family. I'm not sure of anyone else who is in constant contact?

[+Firth of Forth]

I've made contact with Groundspeak about Billy's Earth Caches, I'm also starting a process of getting them updated to the new logging requirements. As this process's requires permission off Billy, I have to obtain permission through someone who is in contact with his family, before getting the help of local cachers in producing the required educational question. As this process is going to take several weeks, please be patient with me over this issue.

 

Deceangi

I think Firth of Forth may be the best person for you to get in touch with for the contact with his family. I'm not sure of anyone else who is in constant contact?

 

I have already been in touch with Deceangi with an email addres as I don't think that the geocaching one is being used or monitored.

 

I should add that Ewan's Dad also contacted me a while ago and said that he was gratified and humbled by the fund-raising that's going on, and said that "Geocachers seem to have a highly-developed sense of community!"