The News

At a regularly scheduled meeting of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission held earlier this evening, the Commissioners, by a voice vote, denied a request to reconsider their policy prohibiting the placement of Geocaches within the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. They agreed to post a statement of their policy on the Preserve Commission web page.

The Commissioners made it very clear that the first mandate of the Preserve is preservation. The Commission is not going to allow any activity which involves going off-trail. They are also quite open about the fact that they are going to avoid setting any precedent that risks opening a wider door in the future. By that reasoning, they hold that even a cache that is right next to the trail is still off-trail. They are also opposed to having any contemporary non-natural objects within the preserve, except for those placed for such reasons as safety, directions, etc. Those are their major reasons behind their denial of reconsideration, as best as I am able to summarize them.

I would urge any of you who have placed caches within the Preserve to remove them soon. My best guess is that there will be a not very long grace period before confiscation efforts begin.

Steve
Team Tierra Buena