NOTE: This is not a Listserv@azgeocaching.com posting. Please do not forward it to that group, and please do forward this note to other geocachers without my permission.

The other and more significant reason in my opinion is the fact that the Commission sees the Preserve more akin to a Designated Wilderness Area than a Municipal Park, and the city ordinances that created the Preserve and the Commission back that up. Considered in that light, banning Geocaching makes a lot more sense in the Preserve than in many other public lands.

I will state my opinion here: Geocaching should be permitted in all of the Scottsdale McDowell-Sonoran Preserve, and we as Geocachers should fight to maintain our rights to hide and maintain caches in the Scottsdale Desert Preserves. Why should we simply acquiesce to such a blatently unfair policy? This land is public land that should be available to all of us. As a freedom-loving American, I am fervently opposed to "preservationists" who want to lock us out of public lands and treat us like we are living in a dictatorship. (Although I consider myself to be a conservationist, the more I learn about what "preservationists" want to do and the restrictions they want to put on us, the more I become opposed to people like that).

Let's fight to keep geocaching available on all public lands. We need more, not fewer, geocaches on backcountry lands, caches that require long hikes, are on top of mountain peaks, and are not close to parking areas or vehicle access.

I am sending this note to geocachers individually, rather than the list server. I am not sending this to Steve of Team Tierra Buena because I very much opposed to his position on this matter. Therefore, please do not forward this note to him.

Steve appears to be acquiescing rather than trying to fight to preserve geocaching. One of the caches he said should be removed is the Thompson Peak geocache, which I will not remove because I feel that it is one of the best geocaches in the Phoenix metropolitan area. (Geocachers who have visited it have expressed very favorable opinions on the log entries). We need more caches like this one, not fewer. (I am getting tired of many of these urban caches that require no physical exertion to find, and which often become missing after a short time).

I will make this, and my other physical caches, "members-only" caches. Therefore, if the Scottsdale Preserve "preservationists" want to get and remove my cache, they would have to become a member.

Ken Akerman