Employee of Grand Canyon N.P. wanted!

[+Team Gewei]

Hello,

 

I'm making a geocache (earthcache) at the Grand Canyon National Park. The earthcache is well completed and ready for publishing, but the only last step is the permission. Earthcaches in national parks need permission of the national park.

 

So my question to you all is:

IF ANYBODY KNOWS AN EMPLOYEE OF THE GRAND CANYON N.P., PLEASE SEND ME A PM WITH CONTACT DATA.

 

Thanks for helping, and hopely it helps!

 

Team Gewei

[Keystone]

Not a website feature question. Moving to earthcaching forum.

[+cerberus1]

... but the only last step is the permission.

Don't mean to be rude, but shouldn't that have been your first step?

 

Maybe I missed something in the guidelines, but since you're not in the same Country, maybe you're attempting a Vacation Earthcache?

The guidelines for Vacation Earthcaches states:

- You may submit an EarthCache for a location that is far from your home. You must have visited the site no more than two months prior to the cache page submission.

 

I see you've been to Florida, but that's a bit of a distance away from the Grand Canyon. Very unusual to go all the way to Florida for one Virtual.

Wouldn't it make sense to stop by and get permission personally when you visit the Grand Canyon?

[AZcachemeister]

I really don't have anything nice to say about this.

 

Should I break out the geology text to make an EarthCache in Holland and just hope someone there will give permission?

 

There must be thousands of interesting geologic features that deserve to have an EarthCache, but I have not been within 1000 miles of any of them.

[+geodarts]

There are lots of employees at the Grand Canyon NP and responsibilities vary according to the area (such as North Rim or South Rim). The person who approved my earthcaches at the North Rim may not be able to help you in another area of the park, even if she is still there and has the same responsibilities. Assuming you visited the park, I would start by writing the park superintendent or using the general contact information for the park. That method has always worked for me.

[+Team Gewei]

GeoAwareUSA2 says:

 

Your Earthcache is very well done, well thought out, and thorough. I have rarely seen one ready to be published, like this one.

 

One step remains. In the United States all the Earthcaches withing the National Parks need written permission from the park managers. That information should be emailed directly to me. It should have their approval of the locations, wording, and the person approving it along with their position and contact information.

[+cerberus1]

GeoAwareUSA2 says:

 

Your Earthcache is very well done, well thought out, and thorough. I have rarely seen one ready to be published, like this one.

 

One step remains. In the United States all the Earthcaches withing the National Parks need written permission from the park managers. That information should be emailed directly to me. It should have their approval of the locations, wording, and the person approving it along with their position and contact information.

Did you inform GeoAwareUSA2 that you never visited the site?

I'd think they wouldn't open that can of worms, breaking their own guidelines, no matter how well done, well thought out, or thorough your research was.

[+Team Gewei]

Ehm... Who says I've never visited the Grand Canyon?!

[+cerberus1]

Ehm... Who says I've never visited the Grand Canyon?!

You're correct.

It's very possible that you went to the Grand Canyon within the last two Months prior to submission and never cached in the area.

[+GeoawareGSA1]

Technically, the guideline does say: "EarthCaches must have approval from the Land Manager prior to submission".

Also, in our FAQ: "We would suggest however, that you develop EarthCaches in partnership with the land managers, to ensure that sensitive areas are avoided, that multi-cache concepts are used with waypoints to keep people on trails and that cache-in-trash-out is advertised."

Creating a cache page, then expecting park staff member X to just rubber stamp it is usually not a recipe for success. Many such caches languish for months waiting for a permission that may never come.

At the Grand Canyon, being such a large and busy park, which is especially busy this time of year, they probably simply have so many other priorities.

Thanks for caching -- that does some like a neat spot for an EarthCache!

Best wishes,

GeoawareHQ

[BlueRajah]

Many parks in the west have cut staff by about 30-40% from a few years ago, and there are far more people visiting the parks rather than go on long international trips. So there are more employees, doing more work, for more people than normal. A friend that works at a National Park told me they do not respond to any emails from May-Sept because of how busy they are unless they are directly work related. They just do not have the time. I would guess this park is in similar dire straits

[+hzoi]

I would second geoawareHQ and add some points from my experience.

 

When I first started writing earthcaches, I did it the way this cache appears to have been developed: I spent a lot of time researching and writing to come up with a complete earthcache, then I tried to get permission and get it published. When one of my ECs didn't get published, I was pretty disappointed. But it taught me a valuable lesson: like any project or plan, if I don't have the final approval authority myself, then I am taking a risk that won't always pay off by doing all of the work to write up the cache beforehand.

 

These days I try to work through a system, and it has paid off so far.

 

Step 1: Find a site (either by visiting or doing some research) that would be a good candidate for an EC. Determine who manages the land and what their policy is on earthcaches.

 

Step 2: Do some research and come up with a broad concept for the EC and the lessons I plan to teach through it.

 

Step 3: Contact the EC reviewer that covers that region and run the concept by them for initial approval. (This also can help focus and troubleshoot the process.) Confirm the land manager and approval requirements with the EC reviewer.

 

Step 4: Contact the land manager (in person is best, on the phone is good, email if necessary) and run the concept by them for initial approval. Get any necessary permit forms or additional points of contact.

 

Step 5: Complete my research and write up a complete draft of the earthcache.

 

Step 6: Submit the complete draft (and any needed permit forms) to the land manager for final approval. Usually I do this by writing up the EC using the cache submission page, then printing the page to a PDF file and emailing it to the land manager.

 

Step 7: Submit the EC for publication.

 

Step 8: Watch the emails and "found it" logs roll in.

 

It's a little bureaucratic, but that's almost always the case when you're dealing with any kind of government agency. The implied task between all of these steps is, "Be patient."

 

Bottom line is, if I do it this way and the initial response I get from the EC reviewer or the land manager is "no," it's a lot easier to let it go and move on to other things. A lot harder to do that if I've spent hours taking notes, pictures, and waypoints and doing research before I've bothered to find out whether my EC will even be allowed.

[+GeoawareGSA1]

10 thumbs way up to hzoi's process!!

[+Ladybug Kids]

What ^they^ said. Now, to get off high center, check out the Grand Canyon South Rim Autumn Newsletter which discusses Grand Canyon National Park's EarthCache program and should provide a lead for contact information on how to partner with the right land manager.

[+Walts Hunting]

Have you tried calling them and asking who would handle that instead of a shout into the wilderness hoping he or she hears you

[Neos2]

This topic has been dormant for nearly two months. I see no reason for the renewed interest in advising the original poster.