+hoys Posted January 21, 2003 Share Posted January 21, 2003 A few of us in Central Kentucky are forming a GeoCaching group called the GeoCachers of Central Kentucky (or GEOCKY for short). We are forming partly in response to a recent incident that has shut down GeoCaching access to Kentucky State Nature Preserves. Our group will be meeting next month with representatives of the Preserves, as well as the State Park Commission and probably some others. Does anyone have any information on regulations that have worked well in your area? We would like to present some rules that are reasonable both to the land stewards as well as GeoCachers, and the more examples we have of working rules, the better. Any information you could forward along would be most appreciated. My email address can be found on our web page. Thanks in advance!!! - Nathan Hoy Webmaster, GeoCachers of Central Kentucky http://www.geocky.org Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 The St Johns Water Management District in Fla seems to have one of the most reasonable set of rules and an easy way to get a permit. You can find them here. Also, after a bit of a fight, Arkansas State Parks has put together a reasonable set of rules (check the Arkansas State Parks thread in the General forum). You might want to avoid using places like NC State Parks, Maryland State Parks and Pennsy State Parks as an example. Officials there appear to be pretty ignorant about our sport and have imposed ridiculious restrictions. "Paternalism is the greatist despotism" - Emmanual Kant Quote Link to comment
+hoys Posted January 23, 2003 Author Share Posted January 23, 2003 Thank you for the information. Arkansas had us all worried with their 4-month permit rule, until they extended it to a year with autorenew. The rest of the rules were (and are) very reasonable and accommodating. We will be highlighting Arkansas as an example of a good ruleset. Your example in Florida seems very reasonable, too. The one-foot dimensions rule seems a bit strange, but not unreasonable. Appreciate your help. We have a lot of work to do with the Kentucky State Preserves Commission, given the bad and unfortunate example they have seen of GeoCaching. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 What was the incident? Haven't read anything about it. "Paternalism is the greatist despotism" - Emmanual Kant Quote Link to comment
Klause Von Kuhn Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 The only restrictions in Maryland State Parks, are the use of ammo-cans. I personally would recommend using this State as an example. They are not ignorant to our sport at all. They will work with you and they are very knowledgable about geocaching. I'm sorry BrianSnat, it's very obvious that you are a fan of the ammo-can and that is what you are basing your whole opinion on when it comes to Md. State Parks. Being from Maryland and getting approvals for my caches in the State Parks it is a very easy process. There are a set of guidelines to follow but none of them are rediculous in my opinion and you can download them from the MGS website at www.mdgps.net Thanks to the Maryland Geocaching Society (MGS), the State Parks actually welcome geocaching. Sorry Brian but the real fact is that this State is a great example to use. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 Banning the use of ammo boxes is a silly and arbitrary rule implemented by people who have no pratical knowledge of our sport. I despise silly and arbitrary rules. The Arkansas State Parks, in a rare instance of bureaucratic wisdom, realized the foolishness of their no ammo box rule and changed it. If you want to promote an agency that makes up stupid rules, go ahead. I prefer to use agencies that put together sensible rules as an example. "Paternalism is the greatist despotism" - Emmanual Kant [This message was edited by BrianSnat on January 24, 2003 at 05:46 AM.] Quote Link to comment
+hoys Posted January 24, 2003 Author Share Posted January 24, 2003 The Cache in question was called "Pilot's Knob" and was located on the Pilots Knob State Preserve without permission. I assume the cache owner was unaware of the rules, and I'm sure it was an honest mistake. However, what really got the commission mad was the Cache owners recommendation that people take a "short cut" down a closed trail. As a result, they contacted Groundspeak and banned all Caches in the Preserve system. We are working to try and restore Cache access into the Preserve system and get some ground rules (similar to Arkansas, we hope) established. The State Park authority seems to be getting involved, so we want to make sure that we have a chance to help establish some fair rules. You can read a little more on our web site, http://www.geocky.org - click on the "Important Notice" link. Quote Link to comment
+The Li'l Bears Posted February 1, 2003 Share Posted February 1, 2003 You were a big step ahead of me on getting this topic up. I too am a member of GEOCKY and am feeling a lot more optimistic these days about the new sets of rules that are coming out of various state park systems. For a while there, it looked like state after state was going to ban caching in the SP systems. Anyone else had any experience with dealing with land-management people? Also curious if the National Parks are a complete dead issue or if there could be some fututre compromise there too. Poppy Bear ~ The Li'l Bears from Lexington, KY Quote Link to comment
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