Political Clout

[solohiker]

The National Park Service has banned geocaching without so much as a public hearing that I know of. How many other public agencies are going to erode our recreational use of public land?

 

I think we need to form a political block, just like the NRA and NOW. I think we could start with a letter writing campaign to elected representatives. It would be great if we could have a form letter posted on the web site with contact info and the facts of the sport.

 

We could download copies of the letter and place them in stamped envelopes addressed to local representatives in our caches for the newbies. We need to get organized, before all public land is off limits.

 

Suggestions welcome.

[+Wander Lost]

Well elections for all members of the house of representatives are coming up in November if I'm not mistaken. As we plan our summer event caches we should consider inviting our local Reps. If we can get them out and see what it's all about we might just get a few of them hooked.

 

This would work especially well if the event cache was built around a community service theme. We have two in our area that we plan to attend in June. One will help with a clean-up project at a state park in Oregon, the other one is a fund raiser for The Washington Special Olympics.

 

A letter writing campaign is a good place to start, but most have aids who read their mail for them. It is those aids that often decide which letters the rep actually reads.

 

An invitation to a charity fund raiser or an environmental clean-up project in an election year is harder to ignore. I don't know when the current session of congress ends (or if it has already), but everyone should be 'home' for the summer to start working on their re-election.

 

Hopefully if we can get a few to make an appearance we can show them that we are good, hard working people who care about the environment. We are hosting an event cache this summer and have talked about inviting the Governor and his family. Obviously he doesn't have much say regarding National Parks, but he does have authority over state parks.

 

I see that as the first step. If we get local and state parks to work with us instead of against us then the NP's and NRA's will too.

 

Well that is just MHO.

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

There are a handful of us compared to the NRA. Lots more guns than GPS's.

 

I think we just need to do our best to work with everyone. Use common sense with our cache placement. If we aren't allowed to put traditional caches in National Parks we can still do virtual ones which are just as much fun as far as I'm concerned.

 

If ya really need to find a trinket, then there is plenty of open space out there. National Parks are a small portion of available space.

 

Never Squat With Yer Spurs On

[spiny norman]

Send him/her a few million dollars.........works for Phillip Morris, Enron, Exxon, The NRA, Teamsters, HMO's, etc.....ad naseum. Don't have a extra few million laying around?

[spiny norman]

I guess your outta luck.