[Az-Geocaching] The Future of Geocaching
Farquhar, Larry
az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com
Fri, 28 Dec 2001 11:56:09 -0700
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
------_=_NextPart_001_01C18FD1.4FFBE690
Content-Type: text/plain
All of these topics are being discussed on a world-wide basis in detail at
the Geocaching discussion board. www.geocaching.com/discuss
<http://www.geocaching.com/discuss> I went to get specific discussion
threads to reference, but the discussion board is currently down for
maintenance. Do a search for the proper threads.
Larry Farquhar
Team "Wyle E"
www.azjeeper.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry B Nelson [mailto:peakbagger2@juno.com]
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 11:36 AM
To: az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] The Future of Geocaching
Two recent posts, one concerning geocaching etiquette and another relating
an incident where the cache seeker felt that a cache was placed in an
unsuitable location, have rekindled a general concern for the sport that
I've had since I first learned about it.
Geocaching is a very new activity for me so I haven't seen public
discussions of it until the last few weeks. If the subject of this post has
been beaten up in the past then I apologize, but would like to have a brief
summary of where folks stand. If not, then this may start or continue a
needed discussion.
Geocaching is still a small, low impact sport. I believe it's been less
than two years since the GPS was given the precision to allow finding a
location to within 10-20 feet. Presently there are over 250 caches in
Arizona and growing steadily. It's not inconceivable that we could grow
exponentially for some time. If we double each year for only seven years
there will be over thirty thousand caches in the state. This obviously
seems impossible at present but my point is that given the potential of the
sport, it could easily grow much larger than we now experience. Now is the
time to be proactive about discussing possible future effects on public
lands and placing some rules to prevent problems with Forest Service, BLM,
state land and urban park managers, not to mention the moral issue of
protecting our environment in general.
Topics may include policies for placing caches in designated wilderness
areas (there should be none is the obvious answer for me) and removing
caches or not placing them at all in fragile and/or high use conditions.
There might come a time when we are so large that a limit should be imposed
on the "life span" of a cache before it should be removed, or an upper limit
on the number of caches placed within a given area, etc. In general, we
need to keep this sport as the pleasurable while still land friendly
activity it now enjoys.
Again, if all this is reinventing the wheel and such policies have already
been put in place, let me know where I can find them.
I'll stop here and add further opinions when I see where this thread goes.
My guess is that the majority, if not all of us, appreciate the natural
areas of Arizona enough that we place our sport second to protection of the
locations that are already often too negatively impacted by other forces.
Jerry Nelson
Offtrail
------_=_NextPart_001_01C18FD1.4FFBE690
Content-Type: text/html
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<TITLE>Message</TITLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY bottomMargin=0 leftMargin=3 topMargin=0 rightMargin=3>
<DIV><SPAN class=469205118-28122001><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>All of
these topics are being discussed on a world-wide basis in detail at the
Geocaching discussion board. <A
href="http://www.geocaching.com/discuss">www.geocaching.com/discuss</A> I
went to get specific discussion threads to reference, but the discussion board
is currently down for maintenance. Do a search for the proper
threads.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2><!-- Converted from text/rtf format -->
<P><SPAN lang=en-us><B><FONT face=Arial size=2>Larry Farquhar</FONT></B></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face=Arial size=2>Team "Wyle E"</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face=Arial size=2>www.azjeeper.com</FONT></SPAN>
</P></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Jerry B Nelson
[mailto:peakbagger2@juno.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, December 28, 2001 11:36
AM<BR><B>To:</B> az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com<BR><B>Subject:</B>
[Az-Geocaching] The Future of Geocaching<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> Two recent posts, one concerning geocaching etiquette and another
relating an incident where the cache seeker felt that a cache was placed in an
unsuitable location, have rekindled a general concern for the sport that I've
had since I first learned about it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Geocaching is a very new activity for me so I haven't seen public
discussions of it until the last few weeks.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If the subject of this post has been
beaten up in the past then I apologize, but would like to have a brief summary
of where folks stand. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If not,
then this may start or continue a needed discussion.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Geocaching is still a small, low impact sport.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I believe it's been less than two
years since the GPS was given the precision to allow finding a location to
within 10-20 feet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Presently
there are over 250 caches in Arizona and growing steadily.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It's not inconceivable that we could
grow exponentially for some time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>If we double each year for only seven years there will be over thirty
thousand caches in the state.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This obviously seems impossible at present but my point is that given
the potential of the sport, it could easily grow much larger than we now
experience. Now is the time to be proactive about discussing possible future
effects on public lands and placing some rules to prevent problems with Forest
Service, BLM, state land and urban park managers, not to mention the moral
issue of protecting our environment in general.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Topics may include policies for placing caches in designated wilderness
areas (there should be none is the obvious answer for me) and removing caches
or not placing them at all in fragile and/or high use conditions. There might
come a time when we are so large that a limit should be imposed on the "life
span" of a cache before it should be removed, or an upper limit on the number
of caches placed within a given area, etc.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In general, we need to keep this sport
as the pleasurable while still land friendly activity it now enjoys.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Again, if all this is reinventing the wheel and such policies have
already been put in place, let me know where I can find them.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'll stop here and add further opinions when I see where this thread
goes.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My guess is that the
majority, if not all of us, appreciate the natural areas of Arizona enough
that we place our sport second to protection of the locations that are already
often too negatively impacted by other forces.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Jerry Nelson</DIV>
<DIV>Offtrail</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
------_=_NextPart_001_01C18FD1.4FFBE690--