Thanks to the initiative of Regan Smith of Team Evil Fish (and congrats
on reaching 200 finds, Regan!), an email correspondence was established
between the geocaching.com admins responsible for approving caches in
Arizona and our friend Scott Wood at Tonto National Forest. The result
of that dialogue is that physical caches in designated wilderness areas
will no longer be approved in Arizona. Tonto NF continues to "welcome"
(Scott's word) Geocaching elsewhere within its land.
We are also asked when placing caches to be sensitive to areas that may
be or contain archaeological sites. If you want to place a cache and are
unsure about an area, please contact the Ranger District office
responsible for the area to obtain guidance.
Both Scott and the admins recognize that not everyone who hides caches
in the state reads this mailing list. At the same time we must remember
that the admins are volunteers and certainly don't know our public lands
as well as we do. So if you see a new physical cache get approved that
you believe has been placed in a designated wilderness area, or if you
discover a multi where the last stage turns out to be in wilderness, I
suggest you email the hider directly about your concerns. Don't start by
posting a "cache should be archived" log entry. If you then can't come
to a resolution with the hider and you still believe the placement is
inappropriate, at that point you should consider getting geocaching.com
involved.
If we employ this bit of self-policing, we should be able to ensure that
everyone can continue to enjoy Geocaching on most of the three million
acres that comprise the Tonto National Forest.
Steve
Team Tierra Buena
(text/plain)