A Park Service That Likes Geocaching? Woohoo!

[+Imajika]

Well, on May 2nd, our local group had our CITO event. 30 people showed up (and 5 dawgs). We collected three truckloads of trash and had a great time!

 

The ranger that helped me organize the event showed up to help us and answer questions, etc. He also took pictures of us which I uploaded to the event page.

 

While talking to the ranger we asked him what Aurora Parks and Open Space thought of caching. He said everyone in his office knew about geocaching and they knew there were caches on their land. He said they didn't mind as long as the container was an ammo box or smaller and not in a sensitive area or in a place where it could be mistaken for something illegal.

 

After the event we were talking some more and he said he had a meeting with his boss on Friday and he had an idea. He asked if Aurora Parks and Open Space could hide their own caches with my help (co-owned by us but maintained by me and posted under my user name). He said he thought it would be a great way to get more people out to lesser known areas in Aurora. He also said he thought his boss would really go for the idea and he will contact me later in the week to let me know what she said. He thought it would be neat to see the logs online and he knows some GREAT places for hides.

 

Naturally, I agreed to his idea and hopefully the meeting will go well with his boss. I'll keep you all posted! I am just so amazed to find an agency that actually encourages geocaching on their lands. Pretty darn cool if you ask me!

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I have a similar experience with Sugarite Canyon State Park in New Mexico. The rangers have been very helpful in helping me setup my upcoming event cache.

[+The Leprechauns]

In Pennsylvania, there are three caches placed by the rangers at state parks. The Lancaster County Conservancy and the Berks County Conservancy place their own caches. Hundreds more caches placed by geocachers are also in our state parks and state forests under a permit system.

 

In Ohio, there are a half dozen local park systems that place their own caches - and most of them also allow regular geocachers to hide caches with permission. The Cleveland MetroParks are probably the leaders in this area - they even host event caches.

 

More and more frequently, enlightened land managers realize that geocachers -- responsible lovers of the outdoors, families with kids, etc. -- are exactly the type of visitors that they want to attract to their parks. We bring our tourist dollars with us, too.

[+Renegade Knight]

Some parks recognize that their mission is to encourage people to use the lands they manage.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Well it did turn out to be more than a trashy day. I'm glad our efforts went to help the caching community of the big metropolis that is South of some prime caching territory.

 

And look at what I found:

Edited May 6, 2004 by Tahosa and Sons

[+jeff35080]

Tahosa, will you be leaving that as a trade item on a future caching trip?

[+The Cheeseheads]

Half of my caches are hidden on the University of Wisconsin-Parkside grounds. I exchanged a few emails with the Chief of Police and he was happy to have them there to get more people using the trails there which are open to the public.

[+RichardMoore]

In Ohio, there are a half dozen local park systems that place their own caches - and most of them also allow regular geocachers to hide caches with permission.  The Cleveland MetroParks are probably the leaders in this area - they even host event caches.

As long as we're on the subject, check out the latest Cleveland Metroparks event cache, the Geocache-Athalon.

[+Gaddiel]

I posted this in another thread recently. Check out the Arkansas State Parks web site. They have a list of fun things to do in Arkansas State Parks. The last item in the list is GEOCACHING!

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Some parks recognize that their mission is to encourage people to use the lands they manage.

I brought up exactly that point to the rangers I met

[+mbrownjer]

The rangers at a Texas State Park where one of my caches is located love that the cache there, too, knowing that it brings new visitors to the park. They check on it regularly, and even generated some coupons to put in it for discounts on camping fees!

[+GeoSar]

I went to a local park to go after three caches when I got to the gate to pay the admission the park rangers asked why I was visiting the park today, I told them I was there to hunt for three geocache's I then attempted to pay the standard admission price of $3.00 the Park Ranger refused to take my money, he said he always lets Geocachers in free because they help keep the park clean,

I told him I don't mind paying the fee but he refused to take my money,

so I made sure that I cito anything I could carry out.

The park is the Silver river State Park in Ocala, Florida

[ckhd]

Tahosa, will you be leaving that as a trade item on a future caching trip?

If you do, make sure you put it in one of the 'gerbil' geocaches, so he doesn't get... lonely

[+The Leprechauns]

Tahosa, will you be leaving that as a trade item on a future caching trip?

If you do, make sure you put it in one of the 'gerbil' geocaches, so he doesn't get... lonely

I cannot believe what I'm reading here!

 

Many of us have worked long and hard to secure permission from land managers for hamstercaching. In doing so, we preach the CITO mantra as well as proper hamstercaching ethics.

 

What you are suggesting flies in the face of everything that good hamstercachers have worked on so diligently to establish in our park systems.

 

[edited to remove image of outraged hamster... too frightening]

Edited May 8, 2004 by The Leprechauns

[+Bjorn74]

Next week, we have the director of the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association scheduled to drop by and meet the Central Ohio Geocachers at our Cache Coffee (Now known simply as the C&C). OPRA holds conferences and conducts training events for regional and local Parks & Rec people. Our goal, COG and OPRA, is to educate P&R folk how they can leverage caching to increase their visibility and how to manage it within reason. After all, it's about budgets and land management or Politics and the Environment. By the end of the year, Ohio may be a 100% cache friendly state.

 

Yahoo! ©

 

* don't want to get in copyright trouble, you know.

[+Imajika]

Well, I got an update from Ranger Clark this afternoon:

 

"I have met with Linda about our idea and she is in favor of working together on placing some caches. First, however, as a division we need to develop some guidelines on how and where they should be placed. I intend to look for a policy on your website but if you have any information or can recommend another source please inter office mail it to me or tell me how to find it. I am particularly interested in guidelines for sensitive environmental areas and avoiding overuse and degradation of vegetation caused by increased foot traffic. Establishing a policy should be pretty straightforward and I expect we will have something in a week or so. Once that is completed we can put something together. I hope you are still interested in this project. I think it will be really fun and rewarding. "

 

I wrote back and told him about the geocaching policy web site so he can get a look at how other parks across the country are handling geocaching. I also volunteered to do a demo for them so they can try geocaching firsthand. I pushed the idea that we CITO and most geocachers come from 'outdoorsy' backgrounds so we know about respecting the environment.

 

Hopefully this will work out and be a huge success! I'll keep everyone posted!