BLM land

[juneau34]

On Friday, we were told by a docent on BLM land that we could not geocache on BLM. The docent said that they had gotten the ruling this last week and were suprised. Can anyone verify this?

[+StarBrand]

Might refer to a specific unit of BLM land. The BLM has been very Geocaching friendly as a whole for many years. Would be a shame if something has caused a reversal of that.

[+Jeepergeo]

I'm a bit surprised to hear this. The BLM is usually pretty good about supporting multiple use of their (our) lands, be it for grazing, hunting, off roading, prospecting, etc. Rarely do they say "No" in an absolute sense.

 

I learned the hard way that many docents feel obligated to answer questions that they really don't have the appropriate knowledge to answer. I admire them for their volunteering, but again, just be careful with what you do with what they tell you.

 

I suggest double checking with BLM staff directly. And don't be timid: nicely request CFR citations or copies of policy memos to help you better understand the issue and so that you can pass along the same information to your fellow users of public lands. Most staff gladly oblige and will be very helpful. I've found that asking staff in this manner keeps them from being defensive, putting you two steps closer to a real answer.

 

Several years ago, I was looking for a place to go plinking and called the BLM office. I asked about plinking at several locations, and the answer was "no" for each. This could have gone on for hours. But fortuantely, I asked the right question, and a helpful staffer agreed to mark up six maps showing everywhere plinking was allowed in the District, and they agreed to send me the maps if I promised to pay the $24. I agreed. I sent the check the next day and the maps arrived a day after that (wow! that was trust working both ways!). Each map was carefully hand marked with plinking areas. My guess is that the BLM staffer spent 15 minutes per map marking it up, so for $24, I got a wealth of information that could never have been extracted from a docent that hated people plinking on public land!

Edited February 5, 2008 by Jeepergeo

[+Happy Humphrey]

What's a BLM? What's a Docent?

I really need to avoid these places - it sounds terrible!

 

(Edit) What's plinking? Should I avoid that as well?!

Edited February 5, 2008 by Happy Humphrey

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

What's a BLM? What's a Docent?

I really need to avoid these places - it sounds terrible!

 

(Edit) What's plinking? Should I avoid that as well?!

As a concerned and upright citizen, I am worried about this thread, very worried, and I have the same questions as does HH. You all are using all kind of cryptic acronyms and wacko words like BLM, CFR, docent and plinking, and I dunno what any of them mean, and to me, when I encounter something that I don't understand, it usually means that I have stumbled upon subversive terrorist activities or pinko communisks. So, I have my finger poised above the number pad on my desktop phone here, ready to speed-dial the toll-free Terrorism Tip Line hotline number for the Department of Homeland Security to turn in you pusillanimous BLM/docent/plinking terrorists, unless I get just the right answer to my questions about what them there wacky words mean!

 

Meanwhile, lemme warn you: geocaching is a good sport, for good God-fearing people, and we don't need no stinkin' commie pinko subversive terrorists hanging out on our forums using these here funny words! So, get clean or get out! Shape up or ship out!

 

Late PS: If anyone else wants to call the DHS Terrorism Tip Line about such stinkin' terrorist forum posts, here is their toll-free number:

1-888-292-1919

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[magellan315]

What's a BLM? What's a Docent?

I really need to avoid these places - it sounds terrible!

 

(Edit) What's plinking? Should I avoid that as well?!

 

BLM - Bearua of Land Management

Docent - A volunteer. A term normally used in museum to refer to the people who man information desks and give tours

 

Plinking - Target shooting

[+bflentje]

What's a BLM? What's a Docent?

I really need to avoid these places - it sounds terrible!

 

(Edit) What's plinking? Should I avoid that as well?!

 

BLM - Bearua of Land Management

Docent - A volunteer. A term normally used in museum to refer to the people who man information desks and give tours

 

Plinking - Target shooting

 

CFR - Code of Federal Regulations

[+StarBrand]

A 20 minute search of the BLM website revelas they seem to be still quite cache friendly. Only ask that hiders talk to the local office first to avoid archelogical areas and sensitive habitats. No permit required or any other rules.

[+briansnat]

A 20 minute search of the BLM website revelas they seem to be still quite cache friendly. Only ask that hiders talk to the local office first to avoid archelogical areas and sensitive habitats. No permit required or any other rules.

 

Of course if a policy change came along recently, the websites might not yet reflect the change.

[+Happy Humphrey]

Whoof...that's a relief, thanks for the explanation. I had similar suspicions to Vinny and Sue. Now I see that the BLM is a sort of equivalent to the National Parks Authority in the UK.

 

I asked a CN but he'd never heard of the terms. I tried a Scotsman too (even though I think he was once in the KLF) and he thought that plinking was some sort of hilarious euphemism... ...couldn't get any sense out of him at all.

[+Chuy!]

News info on the BLM website is reported quickly on their news release page. They have a National news release and a news release for each state. Nothing is currently on the national side. For CA, there is only the new geocaching policy at Fort Ord.

 

...“The policy contains safeguards to ensure that containers are not placed in environmentally sensitive areas or military munitions sites, and that the containers themselves do not have the appearance of anything that could be confused with a military device missed during the Army’s site clean-up activities,” said Eric Morgan, BLM’s Fort Ord manager." ... The new policy replaces the emergency closure order that was issued on September 18, 2007, that prohibited new caches from becoming established at Fort Ord. That closure was prompted, in part, from a report that a letterbox was a munitions device and emergency personnel were summoned to the scene to investigate.

 

This is the current general BLM geocaching policy.

Edited February 5, 2008 by Chuy!

[+briansnat]

thought that plinking was some sort of hilarious euphemism... ...couldn't get any sense out of him at all.

 

I've always considered plinking to be is target shooting, usually at cans with a small caliber firearm. I think the name comes from the sound the cans make when they are hit, but I could be wrong.

 

Now I see that the BLM is a sort of equivalent to the National Parks Authority in the UK.

 

 

Not quite. The US equivalent of the NPA is our National Parks Service. BLM manages the millions of acres of federal government land that doesn't fall under any other authority. BLM lands aren't usually considered to be official parks but are for the most part open for recreation (and grazing, mining, drilling, lumbering, etc...)

[+Moose Mob]

On Friday, we were told by a docent on BLM land that we could not geocache on BLM. The docent said that they had gotten the ruling this last week and were suprised. Can anyone verify this?

Sounds like you are talking to someone really low on the totem pole. I would question this a bit higher as only a few area of BLM lands that are not geocaching friendly. These are areas designated as Wildlife Preserves and Wilderness Areas.

 

As far as another way to look at what BLM is, it was formed by the Department of Interior to manage lands that nobody wanted at the time. Mostly after the homesteading days were over and moslty consist of mountainous terrain, desert lands without water, etc. Some of these lands are becoming useable and they can be leased as grazeing lands or auctioned to developers that can install pipes and other infrastructure to make it useable.

 

Back on topic, BLM has a very open recreational use policy and still allows geocaching. I think the person you talked to is not fully informed.

[+Radnord]

BLM actually stands for the Bureau of Livestock and Mining, or at least that name would be more appropriate. This is truly the land of many abuses. To say "no" to geocaching would like water park saying you couldn't get wet.

[+paleolith]

I doubt there is any equivalent of the BLM in the UK, simply because there isn't enough land.

 

While I don't disagree with those who call it the land of greatest abuse, or the Bureau of Livestock and Mining, another view is that the BLM manages the lands with the lowest density value. Not low value lands, but lands where the values are spread over large areas and include grazing and mining "values" as well as recreational and scenic values. Yosemite would not be BLM land; it's managed by the NPS due to the concentration of scenic and recreational values and activities. The Utah deserts are mostly managed by the BLM -- spectacular lands, but covering huge areas. (The Southern Utah Wilderness Association proposes about 25 million acres of wilderness for Utah.)

 

The USFS, Unites States Forest Servce, manages areas which are intermediate between those managed by the BLM and the NPS. I would guess that the USFS has some kind of equivalent in the UK but a rather small one. The USFS is part of the Department of Agriculture, where the NPS and BLM are part of the Department of the Interior, AFAIK for no good reason.

 

Most states in the US have state-level parks and forestry departments. AFAIK, few if any have land management agencies which are state-level equivalents of the US BLM.

 

Edward

[+Team Cotati]

Tell me, is it something in the water supply? Wowsers.