An interesting coincidence, perhaps, but today (Saturday the 28th) is
National Public Lands Day. See
http://www.az.blm.gov/npld_showcase.htm.
I knew there was some kind of Public Land exhibit in downtown Phoenix
yesterday, but I didn't know why. Now I know.
Chelby wrote earlier:
> Well, I'm going to stop talking now...I know Steve is probably writing
> a huge summary of everything as we speak!:)
Actually, Steve spent the day catching up on some sleep and watching the
Ryder Cup matches on TV. And I now see that several of those who
attended have already posted some in-depth reports. I thank you all for
those, and I'll just add a few observations here.
It's been said already, but I think the most important lesson we learned
last night was that by and large, the land management agencies are fine
with Geocaching, if we only follow our own rules!
First, get permission. We no longer have any excuse to not do that.
Don't know who to ask, or aren't sure what agency has jurisdiction? Ask
here on the list server, or try the BLM's Public Lands Information
Center in Phoenix (
http://azwww.az.blm.gov/PLIC.htm). According to one
of the BLM representatives at the meeting last night, that office should
have contact information for just about any agency in the state.
We know tribal lands are off-limits (and another thought: even if you
got permission from tribal officials to place a cache on their lands,
everyone who wanted to hunt it would have to get permission to visit
it). Same for archaeological sites (more on that in a minute), and
designated wilderness areas. As you've already read, the door was opened
that NPS would at least entertain the idea of caches on their lands.
We're still lucky enough to have millions of acres of public land in the
state that we CAN use. The USFS representative invited cachers to
consult with his office on cache placement. I can't quote what he said
word-for-word, but he made a point of saying that the rangers probably
know about lots of potential cache sites that we don't know about.
We've all been asked to take a more active role in education. Things
like more emphasis on staying on trails, leave no trace, cache in trash
out, etc. These are things you can mention in your cache descriptions
when you place them. I'm planning to write to Jeremy to propose that new
subscribers get an email with either a statement of the rules and
policies or at least the links to where those policies can be found.
(Could any of you here who are more recent subscribers to geocaching.com
refresh my memory what kind of emails, if any, you DO get when you first
enroll? Thanks.)
I'd ask all of you to consider reaching out to new cachers when you meet
them on the trail or see them log one of your caches. I mentioned this
about a week ago, but if you can help spread this around, particularly
amongst cachers who perhaps don't visit this mailing list or this web
site, it would be very helpful.
Something else we've been asked to do: If you're out in public lands and
find, for example, an area where someone has dumped construction
materials, or a vandalized area, or something similar, mark a waypoint
where the damage is, and contact the responsible agency when you get
back as to what you found and where it is. If we can be extra eyes for
the agencies, it's to our mutual benefit.
On the situation with the archaeological sites and site stewards. As Ken
described in his post, in this one case we appear to have a conflict
between one agency that is encouraging people to visit a particular
area, and another agency charged with minimizing visitation to that same
area. I have visited the site in question and I agree with Ken's
arguments in this situation. At the same time, I do recognize that the
site stewards are trying to do what they've been charged to do. We will
probably have to deal with situations like this on a case-by-case basis,
but at least now we can discuss them directly with the appropriate
people.
Finally, I'd like to remind everyone here that a lot of people probably
learned about azgeocaching.com last night. They may be "stopping by" the
listserv or even "settling in". What they read here will probably affect
how they perceive Geocachers. You never know who, or even how many, may
be reading over your shoulder.
Thanks to all the cachers who participated last night. I think we're
seeing Geocaching coming of age in Arizona.
Steve
Team Tierra Buena
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