Cache friendly land managers

[+lazylightning]

I've gotten roped into presenting an educational session at the Missouri Park & Recreation Assn annual conference on Geocaching. I'm supposed to talk on how different places manage Geocaching on thier lands. Of course I would like to focus on those who are really supportive and minimize those who are stinkers about caching. Could you please let me know what agencies you've run across that are Geocachingly progressive? I'd especially like to see any that have websites that have policies on caching. Caching policy success stories are highly coveted!

 

Thanks in advance for your help

Lazylightning

[+Sioneva]

This one might help you a lot - Papio - Missouri River Natural Resources District. They have several flood control sites/parks around the Omaha area, and there is a link on their site for geocaching, allowing people to apply for a permit to cache in those areas. They are very helpful and won't turn a cache down unless there is a valid reason, such as cache saturation in an area.

 

The link for geocaching is under the Recreation and Wildlife menu. I hope this helps!

[Tahosa and Sons]

Here in Co we have the Colorado State Forest State Park that has hidden five caches. And read their newsletters they have gone as far as renting GPS's to the visitors so they can find caches. I think they should rate high on any list of responsible land stewards that like geocaching.

[+briansnat]

Here are a few with websites:

 

Pennsylvania state parks

 

Arkansas state parks

 

West Virginia state parks

(they even list caches on the page)

Edited October 28, 2006 by briansnat

[Gryffindork]

here in West Virgnia the park service is all about geocaching and has a section of their site all about it here.. Also, one of my favorite new places to visit Canaan Valley Resort rents out gpsr's and even has a geocaching billboard adverising it on the road up, and the geocaching logo on a sign at one of their trailheads. (though not all trails leading to gecaches are marked like that). I get excited when I see places that are so pro-geocaching.

[Clan Riffster]

One of the cache friendly places around Central Florida is the St John's River Water Management District. They control thousands and thousands of acres of prime, natural Florida, primarily bordering the St John's River. They have an on line application "here", I think it's a link near the bottom of the page. Very simple to use, and not nearly as restrictive as some.

[CoyoteRed]

I've gotten roped into presenting an educational session at the Missouri Park & Recreation Assn annual conference on Geocaching. I'm supposed to talk on how different places manage Geocaching on thier lands. Of course I would like to focus on those who are really supportive and minimize those who are stinkers about caching. Could you please let me know what agencies you've run across that are Geocachingly progressive? I'd especially like to see any that have websites that have policies on caching. Caching policy success stories are highly coveted!

 

Thanks in advance for your help

Lazylightning

 

You should also be aware that some (many?) smaller organizations are aware of geocaching and have no official policy, but monitor this site. We've got caches in a small city park system were the director is so pleased with drawing folks in that we pretty much have carte blanche, yet they have no official, published policy.

 

The work may be too much for a small, short-staffed department to bother with and it would be counter to our desires to make it seem a policy must be in place as the easy way out is issuing a policy of "No Caching." We don't want that.

 

So, don't forget some of the smaller park systems may not need, or even want, an official published policy or program.

 

I think probably the most important thing for any park system to have is a clearly identifiable contact. I figure once one determines explicit permission is required, 90%+ of the work is figuring out the proper person to ask--the rest is easy.

 

A friendly, approachable contact is probably more important than anything to establish a caching-friendly park system. It's basic customer service.

[+sammydee]

We've been working with Santa Clara County Parks in California (San Jose and vicinity) for a couple of years. They just got the first official Geocaching Policy from a major land manager in this area. It's pretty friendly. Here's a link to the policy.

[+webscouter.]

I've gotten roped into presenting an educational session at the Missouri Park & Recreation Assn annual conference on Geocaching. I'm supposed to talk on how different places manage Geocaching on thier lands. Of course I would like to focus on those who are really supportive and minimize those who are stinkers about caching. Could you please let me know what agencies you've run across that are Geocachingly progressive? I'd especially like to see any that have websites that have policies on caching. Caching policy success stories are highly coveted!

 

Thanks in advance for your help

Lazylightning

 

I'm really stoked that Missouri Parks and Recs is having an annual conference on Geocaching. Let me know if I can help out.

[+budd-rdc]

We've been working with Santa Clara County Parks in California (San Jose and vicinity) for a couple of years. They just got the first official Geocaching Policy from a major land manager in this area. It's pretty friendly. Here's a link to the policy.

As a local to sammydee, I greatly appreciate his work in putting the policy together. There are other agencies nearby that manage much larger parcels of land that may be watching the developments.

 

Rangers from one of those agencies (Mid Peninsula Region Open Space District) often leave comments (mostly positive, and an occasional lecturing) in cache log books.

[+NotThePainter]

The New England Forestry Foundation ran 12 cache contest this year on their land. Great fun was had by all.

 

Paul

[+The Herd]

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is holding their "Fall Into Geocaching" contest right now. They have 22 geocaches placed in 22 state parks. Lots of prizes involved for those that find at least one of them. I think it's brought in over 200 caching teams, logging nearly 500 finds in the less than 2 months that it has been online.

[+Renegade Knight]

The BLM was an early embracer of geocaching. They allow caches on their lands with no direct regulation (the regulation being that geocaching is an allowable casual use of their lands).

[+DaveA]

The state of Wisconsin is very supportive of caching. Unfortunately I don't know of any websites that explicitly praise caching.

 

I was thanked by a county park manager for placing a cache as he felt it would attract more people to the park to see what it had to offer.

 

The state DNR (land managers) is also very supportive of caching. Some natural areas like the Horicon Marsh are divided into state controlled and federal controlled areas. The federal portions are off limits to caching, the state portions are open to it even though there is no difference environmental wise between the land areas.

 

Perhaps other Wisconsin cachers have some linkys for you.

[+WeightMan]

Check out my reply in this thread.

[+lazylightning]

Well, I'm going to give my presentation to the Missouri Parks and Recreation Association annual conference this Thursday (3/8) and I'm really excited about it! I appreciate all of the replies and all the great information.

 

I will be working on my Powerpoint presentation today and tomorrow and just wanted to give a "last call" for any land managing agencies that support geocaching.

 

Right now, I'm really looking for examples of where the land managers sponsor (cosponsor) activities or events that are for Geocachers and Geocaching. I'd like to show the departments that are attending the session how these agencies are involved, what programs they do, and what kind of response they get. I'd like to give them some ideas on how they can get started in offering Geocaching events.

 

Again thanks for all the great info and thanks in advance for the info yet to come!

[+niffir]

Right now, I'm really looking for examples of where the land managers sponsor (cosponsor) activities or events that are for Geocachers and Geocaching. I'd like to show the departments that are attending the session how these agencies are involved, what programs they do, and what kind of response they get. I'd like to give them some ideas on how they can get started in offering Geocaching events.

 

 

I saw something about an upcoming event at one of the state parks here in Kentucky. Here's a link to the information page: http://parks.ky.gov/resortparks/lc/events.htm . I don't know anything about it beyond what is on the page, but you might be able to contact someone there to find out about the upcoming event and any past ones they have held.

[+Mopar]

Here's a few recent hits from google that might help. It shows how many other Park & Rec type organizations promote geocaching:

 

http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../703020328/1002

Teens will have a unique opportunity at the Baxter County Library to explore the past using present-day technology during Teen Tech Week, March 4-10. Interested teens ages 12 to 18 are invited to participate in a workshop to introduce them to the use of handheld GPS units March 10. Participants also will learn about geocaching, an adventure sport that utilizes the internet and GPS technology to locate hidden "treasure."

 

http://www.hsvvoice.com/news/2007/0228/News/074.html

Four caches have been stashed at Village Creek State Park as part of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism's "Cache in with The Natural State" program.

 

http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_054171032.html

Colorado State Forest State Park has opened its borders to treasure hunting tourists hooked on the growing craze of geocaching.

-----------------------

Deb McLachlan with Colorado State Parks said that at least 90 percent of the people who came to the park last summer to geocache had never been to the park before.

 

Most people bring their own GPS units to the park, located in North Park near the small town of Gould. The park also rents them for $10 a day.

 

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/s_493329.html

The Crooked Creek Environmental Learning Center will be sponsoring a "Geocaching" Adventure Program for GPS users at 2 p.m. Sunday. The center will provide a short program explaining geocaching, with an adventure game to follow. A $5 donation per person is requested to help cover costs.

 

http://www.newage-examiner.com/site/news.c...G=461&rfi=9

This Saturday, Lackawanna State Park will host Winterfest, a full day of outdoor activities perfect for the winter season.

 

 

The day begins at 10 a.m. with a winter ecology and global positioning system (GPS) geocache hike led by Jane Frye. Frye, a Scranton native said that hikers will have an opportunity to identify winter plants and berries, search for animal tracks and locate a geocache using a GPS device over the course of the approximately 2-1/2 mile hike.

 

There will be a few GPS devices available for visitors to test out. Frye said she knows of at least four geocaches located in the park. "That really is a sport that has grown like crazy," Frye said of geocaching.

[+misguided one]

I started working with Washington State Parks and Recreation Dept (WSPRC), on behalf of the Washington State Geocaching Association(WSGA), about 4 years ago to prevent geocaching from being banned by the WSPRC. After 3 years, a directive was finally brought forth that the WSGA found to be a reasonable compromise for everyone.

 

You can find information about WSPRC geocaching policy at this link.

 

Hope this helps with your presentation.

[+briansnat]

The Utah state park system is hiding dozens of caches to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

 

Some examples:

 

Freemong Indian SP

 

Yuba SP

 

Territorial Statehouse SP

[+Renegade Knight]

The Portneuf Greenway Foundation is cache friendly. They don't have posted policies because they didn't feel the need to create or regulate geocaching on their lands. However they do allow them and like the fact that people are using their greenway for fun and recreation.