Official policies re. geocaching in California

[+CompassCollector]

Does anyone know of any links to official policies regarding geocaching in the state of California, either at the state, county or city level?

 

I'm in discussion with some local types who are completely clueless, and pointing them to someone else's established policies might help.

 

OhNoMrBill (Bill Hudson, Gilroy CA)

[McKenna Family]

Bill,

 

I am just over the hill from you in Watsonville.

I have hidden a few caches on BLM land down south. Here is a pretty good page that covers it. Hope it helps:

 

http://www.blm.gov/nhp/efoia/wo/fy02/im2002-017.html

 

Patti and Matthew McKenna, Watsonville California

Garmin 72

[+NJ Admin]

You might try emailing your local cache reviewers. They would know better then anyone.

 

Hemlock

 

SoCalAdmin

 

--------------------

Personal slave of The Frog.

[+Mr. Snazz]

quote:

---

Originally posted by NJ Admin:

You might try emailing your local cache reviewers. They would know better then anyone.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?A=118347

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?A=129607

 

--------------------

Personal slave of The Frog.

---

 

Is there a quick and easy way to determine which approvers are assigned to various regions, or do we have to go through cache pages in the desired areas and look at who does the most approving?

[+mtn-man]

There is no quick and easy way to do that at this time except to post a message here as OhNoMrBill did. You can't go looking at the cache pages either since only the cache owner can see who approved their cache.

 

mtn-man... admin brick mason

"approver of all trades" -- per Woodsters Outdoors

[+Team GPSaxophone]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mtn-man:

There is no quick and easy way to do that at this time except to post a message here as OhNoMrBill did. You can't go looking at the cache pages either since only the cache owner can see who approved their cache.

---

Sure you can! Just submit a bunch of vacation caches in the area you're curious about. You will get personal attention from the admin for that area!

 

Took sun from sky, left world in eternal darkness

[+CompassCollector]

quote:

---

Originally posted by McKenna Family:

Bill,

 

I am just over the hill from you in Watsonville.

I have hidden a few caches on BLM land down south. Here is a pretty good page that covers it. Hope it helps:

 

http://www.blm.gov/nhp/efoia/wo/fy02/im2002-017.html

 

Patti and Matthew McKenna, Watsonville California

Garmin 72

---

 

Thank you, that helps a great deal.

 

BTW, my company has a location in Watsonville, so I go over 129 2- or 3-times per month.

 

OhNoMrBill (Bill Hudson, Gilroy CA)

[+Huntnlady]

I have hidden a few caches in Napa County, and the DFG gave the O.K. Of corse, it helps to have a friend who works there. Hemlock is the admin for my area and he knows what is acceptable and what is not. Ask him. And if the caches you plan to hide are in public hunting areas, be sure to email me!

 

_______________________________

Vegetarian is Indian word for bad hunter

 

http://www.geocities.com/cacheinon

[FullOn]

You can also check scgeocachers.org for some rules and regs. They are located in the contents area of the site. Right now we don't have many and what we do have applies mostly to the LA/OC area. We're always working on getting some more though. The forums at the site are also a good place to pose any specific questions about rules.

 

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either." - Benjamin Franklin

[+hikemeister]

quote:

---

Originally posted by FullOn:

You can also check scgeocachers.org for some rules and regs. They are located in the contents area of the site. Right now we don't have many and what we do have applies mostly to the LA/OC area. We're always working on getting some more though. The forums at the site are also a good place to pose any specific questions about rules.

 

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either." - Benjamin Franklin

---

 

FullON --

 

Have a question for you -- next week I will be in LA for five days. I have an open day when I plan to do some geocaching. I had my eye on a place called Griffith Park, where there seem to be many caches and some good hikes (perhaps steep trails). (1) Is this a good place for hiking / geocaching? (2) Is this an area that was impacted by fires?

 

HM

[FullOn]

Griffith Park was not affected by the fires. It is on a hill very near downtown LA. There are lots of very good caches in an around the park. It's pretty large and you don't want to be geocaching at night around there. Not that it is particularly unsafe, but you may get some extra scrutiny from the LAPD being there after dark. I think the park may also close at sunset. Lots of the urban parks around here do.

 

Some of the trails are a bit steep, but nothing too bad.

 

Have fun!

 

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either." - Benjamin Franklin

[+Team Shadow Cat]

Oddly enough, I came to the forums today researching geocache contents (seperate post) and saw this post. As you may guess by my name, I am a Park Ranger. As part of my job (yes I do ocassionaly get to cache on the clock!) I am looking into cache policies in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have sent many letters out to a wide variety of "governmental entities" and others who control open space parcels. The short answer is there might be a policy. Most people who have replied to me have no policy per se. U.S. government land has all the same policy (against the law, don't get caught hiding or seeking). Many of the smaller agnecies have a "never heard of it but it sounds fun policy." Most areas that are not stictly public access lands have access policies, or policies regarding destruction of natural habit, etc...Some areas may require granting of a special use permit before hiding a cache

 

Mr. Ranger

[+gallahad]

Hey there, Mr. Ranger, have we ever met via the academy at Two Rock?

In your communications with various public entities it might be worth mentioning that those of us in this sport who are dedicated to CITO might just possibly be worthy of classification as an asset rather than a liability to public lands.

 

"Today's truth remains valid only as long as it withstands the test of tomorrow's discoveries" - George Hicks

[+Touchstone]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mr. Ranger:

Oddly enough, I came to the forums today researching geocache contents (seperate post) and saw this post. As you may guess by my name, I am a Park Ranger.

Mr. Ranger

---

 

Thanks for posting Mr Ranger. I recently had an animated discussion with the Event Coordinator of the Santa Cruz district. It was a very courteous exchange, but with a couple dozen caches in the district, I felt a bit nervous with the weight of responsibility (none of the caches are mine BTW). There seemed to be alot of discussion within the State Parks about geocaching and it's impact; of particular interest to S.C. District was the impact on the Redwood groves. The coordinator seemed to be fairly knowledgeable about geocaching, but there was no policy in place regarding the activity. Please keep us posted on your end as to what's going on. This could have a HUGE impact in the Monterey Bay area!

 

To cache, or not to cache, that is the question.

[+newbury]

I was recently asked to remove one of my caches which was located on the City of Santa Cruz CA Watershed property in Bonny Doon. Over the last 10+ years that I've been exploring the area there was never a no trespassing sign or other indication of who even owned the property. Now there are signs all over the place and I've had to disable the cache.

 

I'd like to see if I can get official approval to geocache on the site. I think I know who in the city to contact but I'd like to have my ducks better lined up before contacting them. Does anyone have (or can point me to) old letters or other documentation that I could use in my quest? For that matter, it might be worth compiling these documents together on this site (and others) so other people this situation can leverage/benefit from them. I've already read the posting on this site about geocaching on National Wildlife Refuges and I've visited the SoCAL site which has posted some rules for geocaching on county parks: http://www.scgeocachers.org/modules.php?na...=showpage&pid=2

 

Some of the documentation that I think would be helpful include:

• Any published reports or studies that outline the benefits of geocaching
  
• Rules and regulations that other cities might have already enacted that allow geocaching
  
• Letters that other people have written to local, state and federal agencies seeking approval
  
• Related activities that might be more common which could serve as a precedent to gaining approval for geocaching on public lands
  

Thanks in advance for the help!

Ken

[+fizzymagic]

U.S. government land has all the same policy (against the law, don't get caught hiding or seeking).

That is just plain not true. One could make an argument that hiding a cache would be illegal on all Federal lands, as there are regulations prohibiting abandoning property, but cache seeking is certainly not illegal on USFS land, and I can't imagine it would be on most other Federal land except in areas where access is expressly forbidden.

 

After all, seeking a cache is just going to a point on the Earth. I can't see how that can be made generally illegal.

Edited January 19, 2004 by fizzymagic

[+WalruZ]

I don't know if it's an official policy, but every EBRPD ranger I've met knows about geocaching and has no problem with it. I know the Garin & Sunol Rangers are aware of GeoCaching.

 

As far as NWR lands go, not only is it not ok but they have been actively requesting removal of caches from Don Edwards and such places. They go to this site and find them and request removal by name. "alviso slow", "salt ponds", "liacu", "tween parks", etc have all been removed recently. Someday when I get my act more together I plan to remedy this by using the intermediate-virtual multi technique, but my plans require a fair bit of work and I guess I'm just a lazy pos.

 

As an example though, a cache could be hidden 'in' don edwards (NWR) by putting the cache in nearby Coyote Hills (EBRPD), requiring visits to virtual waypoints in Don Edwards finally leading to a reward cache back in Coyote Hills. The same technique could be done in the Bair Island area, which would be more your backyard.

[+Team Tierra Buena]

Here is a pretty good page that covers it.  Hope it helps.

There's a slightly more up-to-date version of that document, though the changes are minor. This is the June, 2003 version

[+Snoogans]

Here is a pretty good page that covers it.  Hope it helps.

There's a slightly more up-to-date version of that document, though the changes are minor. This is the June, 2003 version

Team TB, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

 

I have never seen that document. I will be calling that number real soon.

 

Socal Admin,

 

Look under Policy/Action. The important part is what it doesn't say. IT DOESN'T SAY THAT WILDERNESS CACHES ARE PROHIBITED IN CALIFORNIA. WoooHoo! It still implies that one should ask though. I'm cool with that.

 

I will be talking to that BLM Rep. about my wilderness caches. I think that I can convince them that the placements are of little impact. I never had a name before. Now I have their number.

 

Sn gans

[+SoCalAdmin]

Very true Snoogans, it doesn't say that. However, we (me and the other admins) have discussed National Wilderness Areas several times and have always come to the same conclusion. The spirit of the law (1964 Wilderness Act) is to maintain lands within the United States that have as little possible impact from man. We have agreed that in keeping with the spirit of the Wilderness Act, we should not approve geocaches inside National Wilderness Areas... without approval from the managing agency.

 

The important part of the Wilderness Act is that the lands within the Wilderness area will be maintained as a wilderness by whatever agency was in charge of the lands before the act went into effect. So there is, of course, no one goverment agency that oversees all Wilderness areas. Therefore, in the Wilderness Area that you are interested in, the BLM is in charge of it. They have typically been more lienient than other agencies with approval for non-traditional use of the land.

 

Here in Southern California, several Wilderness Areas are located within the San Bernardino National Forest. In discussions I and several others have had with the head ranger for the forest, he basically said that some areas are OK with him and others are not, but in all cases, he would like to see very little to no impact on the land.

 

So... keep knocking on the BLM's door and get them to give you the OK! Hey, you never know, we had someone get permission for a geocache in a National Park recently!

[+synergicity]

I have recently worked with my city park and rec folks to hammer out a policy (in "real" northern California, not central/bay area ). I can send the doc to you if you want. Email me at synergicity (at) mac (dot) com

 

Be sure to fix the mail addess first.