I wanted to share the e-mail I sent to Christina Leonard with the entire
Arizona geocaching community. Forgive me but I got a little wordy. (I think
I have been reading too many RopingtheWind logs lol)
Before reading my venting I would like to congratulate all of the teams who
have recently reached the 500, 300, 200 and 100 find milestones.
Ms. Leonard:
I am writing to you in response to your "A high-tech scavenger hunt" article
in today's Arizona Republic. I understand that you have received responses
from several of my fellow "Geocachers" so forgive me if this is repetitive.
First off let me say that I am strongly against those that disrespect our
land. The opportunity to be involved in outdoor activities and enjoy the
beautiful Arizona landscape are part of the reason I moved to this state from
Chicago. I would feel outraged if the accusations that have been made
regarding the destruction and theft at area archaeological sites is found to
be true. That being said, I do not feel these public lands or historical
sites should be closed because of the irresponsible actions of a few. On my
way home from work tonight I witnessed somebody throw a wrapper out of their
car window. While I was appalIed by this, I certainly do not feel we should
shut down our highways because of this action.
I was very disappointed to see that you have linked geocaching to this
alleged destruction. As a geocacher who has posted over 300 finds, I make it
a point to leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but pictures when I
am out enjoying the oudoors. I cannot speak for all geocachers but the few
teams that I have met in my travels have been kind, courteous, intelligent,
responsible human beings who would not seem capable of committing the acts
described in your article . I am proud to be associated with these people.
The trait we all share together is the love and respect of nature.
In reading your article I had a hard time finding any hard evidence that
linked this to geocaching. From what I can see, your entire article was
based on the opinions of a few potentially slanted individuals who would like
to make these public sites off limits to all but a select few. These types
of opinions/accusations would seem to be more appropriate for an editorial
column rather than posted on the front page of the newspaper.
I found the statements made by Truman Peters to be a personal attack against
myself and two fellow geocachers. Mr. Peters has accused geocachers of
damaging the trail and stealing artifacts such as grinding tools and broken
pottery. These statements appear to be based on his visit to a site near
Lake Pleasant on March 7, 2002. On March 3, 2002, two other unnamed
individuals and I got together to search for this particular geocache. We
were the only teams to find this cache prior to its removal on March 7.
Using the logic that geocachers damaged the area and the fact that we were
the only geocachers to find this site, Mr. Peters and yourself are accusing
us/me of damaging this site. I take great offense to this allegation. Let
me give you the facts of our March 3rd trip - assuming you are interested in
facts. Following clearly marked 4x4 roads on a topographic map, I drove my
Toyota Tacoma to within .31 miles of the cache. We parked our vehicles at
the end of the road and hiked to the cache site. At no time while driving on
these roads did we see any signs stating the area was off limits. There were
no gates or fences or any other obstacles along the way that would indicate
it was "illegal" as Mr. Peters put it to be in this area. Along our hike to
the cache site, we did not see any evidence of any vehicle being driven off
of the main trail. We found the geocache and signed the log book. We then
took a few moments to enjoy the petroglyphs that were found on the large
boulders in the area. At no time did we see, let alone take/destroy, any
artifacts. We then headed back to our vehicles and followed the road out to
Lake Pleasant. On our way out, we must have passed at least 4 quads within 1
mile of the area. I guess it would have been impossible for them to have
damaged this site. Let me ask you something, if we went out there and
destroyed this area, why would we sign our names in the logbook and come back
and file a full report on the Internet for everybody to see?
It is very unfortunate that there are a few individuals out there that do not
respect our lands. It seems that this type of damage is becoming more and
more common in society today. There are many variables that may have led to
these instances. The population of Arizona and the West Valley in particular
have increased dramatically in recent years. Many of the areas that were
previously used for activities such as hiking and 4-wheel driving have been
closed or purchased by developers. If you drive around the Lake Pleasant
area on any given weekend you will see numerous individuals driving their
ATV's or 4x4 vehicles, riding on horseback, hiking, and yes even geocaching.
The math is pretty simple, more people and less land available is bound to
cause some problems. To make the allegation without any hard evidence that
geocaching is the reason for this damage seems to be a leap of faith and in
my opinion irresponsible. I would be very interested in hearing about any
real evidence that substantiates your article. Presenting this evidence
through a forum such as the Listserve found at Azgeocaching.com would seem to
be a reasonable request.
Thank you for your time.
Jim Ward (AZSaluki)
(text/plain)