Parks Canada GeoCaches

[+BStheTech]

Looks like Parks Canada got it right.

 

Youtube clip placed on my local newspaper's website today.

 

 

Anyone know anything more about this?

 

B.

[+Paul n Susan]

Looks like Parks Canada got it right.

 

Youtube clip placed on my local newspaper's website today.

 

 

Anyone know anything more about this?

 

B.

 

Not sure about BC, but I see that in Ont there are a number of new caches in Nat Parks ... and we had the opportunity to find one last week at Bruce Peninsula. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I see it like this - they have strict policies regarding placement and the best way to ensure that these policies are adhered to is that they place the caches themselves, and we find them. Do I have a problem with this? Absolutely NOT. I think it's awesome.

 

These parks are treasures in themselves. If they refused to embrace Geocaching then I would be fine with that. But the fact that they seem to see value in the game - from coast to coast - well that's great for us. Maybe I live in a dream world, but I feel that most geocachers are people who appreciate and promote the natural beauty of this country. Add the word preserve, and that's Parks Canada's mandate. So, I think you are correct. Looks like Parks Canada got it right.

[+t4e]

well first time i heard about caches placed by Parks Canada was in this thread Environment Week

 

second time was during our visit to Waterton Park in Alberta, they placed around 10 caches and if you found four you got a nice coin, which even though is not trackable its quite good looking

 

Waterton Lakes National Park

[+stagunner]

On the East coast we have had great success with the National Parks and geocaching, the rules are firmly in place and respected by all cachers.

The Atlantic Canada Geocaching Association has several cache challenges in Fundy National Park New Brunswick, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Kejimkujik National Parks in Nova Scotia.

 

See http://www.atlanticgeocaching.com/ for all the details

[+ACGA]

ACGA gave some pointers to Gulf Islands during the spring based (amongst other parks) on our success at Fundy national Park over the last 4 years. We also guided the parks & sites for the Environment Canada contest. The Environment Canada contest is just a first step to hopefully an annual event where more sites go online. The benefit of this year's contest is that a few sites were setting up their gc.com accounts to manage their listings due to the positive experience.

 

I'd say to those who want to see more, to contact your nearest park and offer to help them. In most cases, the parks approach us to help since this side of the activity (the community) is an unknown beast. The policy is there so that you work with the parks to select appropriate locations & their requirements.

 

We have partnered with 4 parks canada sites in NB & NS and all have different requirements how they'd like to see the containers hidden or when to have them available. For example, Fundy & CB are more traditional placement 3 feet from the trail, but Kejimkujik wants it along existing infrastructure on the trail.

 

The only downside is that some sites take a while to things going, or they are not ready or don't have the staff to assign to the project. However, once they are ready to go, it's always a good experience.

 

Oh - this is a good spot to mention that our launch event for the 2nd backcountry series at Kejimkujik is set for sept 24, 2011. This is only for cachers who like a challenge

 

http://coord.info/GC317C7

 

http://www.atlanticgeocaching.com/

Edited August 8, 2011 by ACGA

[+Viajero Perdido]

I rarely visit national parks any more because of their hostile and/or bureaucratic approach to caching.

 

I've saved between $500 and $1000 because I've stopped buying annual passes to the national parks, and instead have become even more familiar with some of our great provincial parks and and vast under-appreciated tracts of crown land. Some of those provincial parks (coughkananaskiscough) have become true caching meccas, especially when compared to the empty-map national park right next door.

[+northernpenguin]

I rarely visit national parks any more because of their hostile and/or bureaucratic approach to caching.

 

I've saved between $500 and $1000 because I've stopped buying annual passes to the national parks, and instead have become even more familiar with some of our great provincial parks and and vast under-appreciated tracts of crown land. Some of those provincial parks (coughkananaskiscough) have become true caching meccas, especially when compared to the empty-map national park right next door.

 

Obviously, you don't live in Ontario - where the National Parks allow/promote geocaching and the Provincial Parks ban it with extreme prejudice (except for a handful of rogue superintendents who allow them anyway).

[+Viajero Perdido]

Well, I guess that's localized government in action, which ultimately is how I think it should work. Let the local people on the ground make the decisions. And if they want more visitors, maybe they should consider allowing this little game of ours...

 

BTW, I've had some great times caching in Gatineau Park just outside Ottawa, at least until the park authorities (it's a national park, but not a National Park) decided to evict all the most interesting ones. Sigh.

[+entogeek]

I rarely visit national parks any more because of their hostile and/or bureaucratic approach to caching.

 

I've saved between $500 and $1000 because I've stopped buying annual passes to the national parks, and instead have become even more familiar with some of our great provincial parks and and vast under-appreciated tracts of crown land. Some of those provincial parks (coughkananaskiscough) have become true caching meccas, especially when compared to the empty-map national park right next door.

 

Sad to hear you have this opinion. But I would ask that you consider why we have national parks in the first place. They have been developed to protect species and habitats that are at risk. At risk from what? People of course. They were not developed for us to hide caches. Parks Canada is thoughtfully recognizing that this is an opportunity to get folks who would otherwise not visit these areas into them but without damaging the environment nor the species that inhabit it. Caches must be placed close to established trails. Why is that? So we don't go trampling down at risk flowers or destroying the breeding areas of threatened reptiles, amphibians or other wildlife that could very well be fighting for their own species survival. I'm content to visit a national park for its natural wonders - if I can visit a geocache while there well that is a bonus for me but not the only reason I would go there.

 

Of course, YMMV.

[+Capers4]

I just got back from Cape Breton and I did the Cape Breton Highlands cacheport program with my family. We are from CB, and have never hiked most of the trails where the caches are placed. We even hiked a couple of trails that didn't have caches. I feel like we really explored more on this visit home than we would have if not for the incentive of finding a cache and earning a coin. We even saw a lynx!

The whole family and 2 dogs liked getting out to do this. It probably helped that the weather was quite cool for most of our visit and not very beach friendly. Great for hiking though!

[+CanadaKate]

Our family just had a lot of fun doing the six-cache Tug Trent series. Thanks to all who worked with Parks Canada to set up this series.

[+The Blue Quasar]

Our family just had a lot of fun doing the six-cache Tug Trent series. Thanks to all who worked with Parks Canada to set up this series.

 

This set should be used to show Ontario Parks how such a program can work for them. Maybe some day another attempt will be made to get Ontario Parks to reconsider their erroneous beliefs. This ridiculous and uniformed ban has been in place for far too long.

 

BQ

[+northernpenguin]

Our family just had a lot of fun doing the six-cache Tug Trent series. Thanks to all who worked with Parks Canada to set up this series.

 

This set should be used to show Ontario Parks how such a program can work for them. Maybe some day another attempt will be made to get Ontario Parks to reconsider their erroneous beliefs. This ridiculous and uniformed ban has been in place for far too long.

 

BQ

 

As one of the 21 geocachers who visited three caches deep in Algonquin's interior - caches that are nearly a decade old - I can attest the park has not been destroyed by the caches, they are the type of caches that show what a wonderful place we have here in Ontario.

 

As a direct result of those geocaches being there, Ontario Parks made about $1600 in permit fees ($25/person/day), the local outfitters about the same in rental fees for the canoes. Think about that. A $5 tupperware container brought at least $4000 in business to the park, the outfitters, and Huntsville. All that, and we didn't shoot a single small furry animal (something I CAN get a permit to do in an Ontario Provincial Park). Last spring, about 11 of us also dropped permit fees and boat rental dollars into Killarney Provincial Park, and the nearby town of Killarney to visit three caches in that park.

 

To add insult to injury, this weekend I received an email from Parks Ontario boasting about their GPS Orienteering program at Bronte Creek, while also claiming that physical geocaches are banned due to "safety concerns".

 

Edit: Undo some of MacOS "Lion"'s overactive autocorrect.....

Edited August 16, 2011 by northernpenguin

[+northernpenguin]

This is the "offending" email that mentions the ban:

 

Not to be confused with geo-caching where participants use a GPS to find a hidden object that is registered with geocaching.com, orienteering is more about speed and the skill of using a map and compass. (Ontario Parks has a general policy of no physical geo-caching in provincial parks for safety reasons and because of the potential for littering. Virtual geo-caching is allowed under certain circumstances).

 

“We use Geo-caching techniques to teach visitors how to use a hand-held GPS to navigate as if they were in a wilderness setting,” says Wiebe. “We teach GPS etiquette, travelling in a way that does not disrupt the natural beauty of the park. We have to strike a balance."

 

Ontario Parks GPS Orienteering at Bronte Creek

[+greywynd]

It seems that National and Provincial Parks are varying a lot in their viewpoint on caching across the provinces. I can't speak for anything other than Ontario, I know little more outside this province beyond what can easily be read in the forums.

 

I can speak in regards to the caches in Ontario that have recently been placed in the National Parks, 6 of which are located in Georgian Bay Islands National Park, and a series of 6 plus a final along the Trent Severn Waterway/Parks Canada area in Peterborough. Both sets of caches were also 'kicked off' with a geocaching event, and there are coins associated with both sets of caches. In one case, coins were distributed to help promote the event and the caches, in the other, complete the series of caches and earn a keepsake coin.

 

In both cases I was actively involved in helping with the placement and listing of the caches, to place GBINP, the staff had some general ideas of areas they wished to draw attention to, and we then arranged an outing, with myself, and three of the park staff present. One of the staffers works in the biology side of things, and is aware of the various levels and types of uses etc throughout the park. This allowed us to decide as we went what hiding spots were park, vegetation, and people friendly. As it is home to one of the few poisonous snakes we have in Ontario, cache placement was kept in mind to try to prevent any accidents with non-snake aware Ontarians.

 

Caching in parks can be done safely and with the preservation of the area in mind, it does however require co-operation and teamwork from everyone. Let's face it, as cachers we should all consider ourselves ambassadors of the sport/game, and if we have a group that is resisting letting us 'play' on their field, we need to show them that we can be responsible when it comes to placing, finding, and maintaining caches.

Edited August 17, 2011 by greywynd

[+brenda&&rew]

So well said Greywynd!!! I completely agree!