State Park Buys More Land

[+Puppyman]

Heres a thought I had today. Say you have a cache placed in a notch of land near but not in a park. Its two years later and you get a notice that your cache is found to be within the park, the park had purchased the notch of land about 6 months ago.

 

This has not happened to me, but it could.

 

1. Do you comply with with DCNR rules?

 

2. Argue that the cache was there before the park bought the land?

 

Post your thoughts or views!

[+Cow Spots]

I'd leave it unless :

 

1) The regulations in your area forbid the placement of any caches on that type of land ;

 

2) The park complains and/or requests its removal.

[+Salvelinus]

I assume this is a Pennsylvania cache?

 

If the DCNR does not know about it, it could probably be grandfathered as not needing a DCNR permit to be listed on GC.com. However, the DCNR has been pretty good about finding unpermitted caches and contacting the owners. Many of the older caches on State Forest or State Park land, placed before the permitting policy, have been exempt. I know of at least 2 in my local area. If I am wrong, I'm sure KA will clarify.

 

Personally, I would take the inititive to get it approved and properly permitted before the DCNR made it an issue for you. They seem to be fairly positive about geocaching, so the process would not be too bad. Arguing that it was there before they purchased the land may help you get your permit approved easier, but it is not a valid arguement for exemption from the permitting process since the DCNR has a policy they must adhear to.

 

Salvelinus

 

edit: Semantics

Edited March 1, 2005 by Salvelinus

[+welch]

who is the dcnra whatever you daid and do I like them?

 

Maybe, but if you go claiming its a permanent part of the landscape doesn't it have to fit with whatever their overall plan is? I mean, maybe permanent geocaches are a kill on sight object (like cedar trees in a nearby rec area here in Iowa. from time to time they go around and cut out most of the cedar trees since they're basically annoying weeds...).

 

Can you caim that you had permission from the prior owner and it should carry over to the new owner?

[+IV_Warrior]

who is the dcnra whatever you daid and do I like them?

 

DCNR (in Pennsylvania) is the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. One of the things they do is manage the State Parks and State Forests in Pa and have an official geocaching policy.....

 

In my limited experience, they have been easy to work with. If it happened to me, I'd just go have a chat with the ranger in charge of the park, explain about the cache, and (hopefully) get a permit for it. Unless, of course, I felt the cache was nearing the end of it's useful lifespan anyway, then I'd just archive it and move on.