Caches On Nebraska Wildlife Management Areas

[+WolfLvr29]

I am a Nebraska geocacher and work for the NE Game and Parks Commission. A potential problem surfaced yesterday concerning caches placed on Wildlife Management Areas that everyone who has placed a cache, or plans on placing one should be aware of. It concerns prescribed burns conducted on WMA's. We did a burn on one of our WMA's yesterday that may have destroyed a cache. I have contacted the owner and asked him to check on it's condition. Everyone should be aware when placing a cache on a WMA, it should be in a fireproof container (ammo box?) and should be placed in a location with little or no fuel (dead leaves, grass, etc.) around it. I realize many caches are hidden under leaf litter, or twigs and sticks, but just be aware that your cache may have to survive a fire some time in the future. So placing it where it is less likely to be exposed to fire would be prudent. Just something for cache owners to think about and consider.......

[+bigredmed]

Thanks I will cross post this to Nebraskache.

 

Do you do prescribed burns in a way that would get deep into tree stands or just burn the grass near by?

[+carleenp]

Thanks for the info. Any plans to burn behind the dam at Red Tail? I have a cache under a scraggly little tree there, but is otherwise fairly in the open.

 

Interestingly ammo cans don't have a good history of surviving fire. This thread discusses that some. It seems the solution is to avoid placing caches where they might accidentally get burned up.

[+WolfLvr29]

Prescribed burns are sometimes allowed to go through timber stands. That was the problem with yesterdays possible destruction of a cache. A very hot fire was allowed to run through the adjacent timber where a cache in a plastic container was located. Mostly we burn grasslands, but a fire through a timber is never out of the question. As far as burning below the dam at Red Tail, I don't know. We are pretty much done with prescribed burning for this year. But as far as that area being burned next year or the year after? Hard to say right now.

[+carleenp]

If you have advance knowledge of future burns, could you email me and tell me the locations? I would be happy to contact any cache owners in the area of the burn and warn them. Then they could maybe go remove the cache and temporarily disable it during the burn. If that would be a pain for you though, don't worry about it.

[+WolfLvr29]

I will try to let you know, but NGPC won't be doing any burning now until next spring. I will probably forget your request by then. If you remember next spring to ask me again, I'll try to find out which WMA's the various districts are planning to burn.