Accepted EarthCache Topics

[+Ocean5000]

I was thinking about possibly creating an EarthCache about a local rain garden. Are rain gardens/bioretention facilities an accepted EarthCache topic?

[Neos2]

An EarthCache Reviewer will likely pop in to give some advice, but my experience with similar environmental/biological topics suggests a rain garden  would probably be a difficult topic to get accepted. A possible exception might be if you can find some way to focus on the natural geology of the area that makes the rain garden possible and steer away from describing how humans engineer the area to create the bioretention facility. EarthCaches focus on the geologic features of an area. 
You may find examples of similar EarthCaches that were permitted years ago, and those may be useful to study for helpful hints. Be aware though that just because a certain type of EarthCache was approved years ago does not mean it will be acceptable now.  

https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=51&pgid=295

https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=51&pgid=293

Edited January 3, 2023 by Neos2

[geoawareUSA9]

Engineering can also be an acceptable topic. But since many rain gardens (a/k/a bioretention basins) can be similar, there would need to be a focus in the earthcache lesson on what makes this particular rain garden unique.

 

Logging tasks would also be a challenge. Many rain gardens appear to be simply gardens, because most of the features of a rain garden (drainage, filtering) are under the surface of the soil. So there's not much to distinguish them from their surrounding areas - other than, at times, an interpretive sign. Since logging tasks can't be based on signs, the struggle would be what if anything a geocacher could sense above ground.

 

I had an earthcache based on a bioretention basin with my player account, submitted before the guidelines tightened up a bit. It was a collection of local wild plants in a slight depression, with an interpretive sign. Two of my logging questions were based on the sign, one of which was about identifying plants. A third was based on reading the text of the earthcache, and really only the fourth required making any observations (is there water there now? if you know, did it rain recently?).

 

While it was acceptable at the time, I had to archive it eventually, because the sign got too faded to read.

 

If someone submitted that earthcache for review today, I wouldn't publish it.

[+Mysterion604]

On 1/2/2023 at 11:26 AM, Ocean5000 said:

I was thinking about possibly creating an EarthCache about a local rain garden. Are rain gardens/bioretention facilities an accepted EarthCache topic?

 

 

There is at least one such cache in my local area.

Edited January 5, 2023 by mysterion604