[GeoStL] St. Louis County Parks presentation
- From: GC-RGS <gc-rgs@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: GC-maillist <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 15:23:12 -0600
I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed concerning my interaction with the
County parks.
Today, at their request, I presented a PowerPoint show at Geeensfelder Nature
Center on the how's and why's of a GPS. There were about 26 attendees with a
mix of park rangers and maintenance people. Some had their own GPS's, others
didn't, and some had never seen or used a GPS. I did a high level overview on
satellites, how they transmit, how the receiver works, GPS screens, etc. Once I
got into the slides that talked about waypoints and tracks, and how the parks
can use that info, that woke everyone up. I had previously made a track of the
road through the park and superimposed that over satellite and topo maps with
ExpertGPS. Everyone could relate to what I was talking about then. Another
point I brought up was walking an existing trail (or a planned trail) using the
track option, and then that could be overlaid on to a topo or satellite view to
create quick and cheap trailmaps for handouts. I also explained how waypoints
could be placed on the maps and then D/L'd to the GPS without even going
outside to physically mark the WP. We talked about waypoint management (EasyGPS
and ExpertGPS) that could be traded with different parks and personnel.
The County Parks even purchased 14 new yellow Etrex's for use at today's class.
They will be used at the different parks in the future. After about 2 hrs. of
slides and questions, we went outside for a quick hands on of the GPS. Some
made random WP's and then used the GOTO to find the spot. I had made a WP of
the steps at the front of the Nature Center and other used that info for the
GOTO.
I had made handouts of the 20 slides so everyone had something to take back for
reference. They may want another session like this one for some that couldn't
make it. The next scheduled session will be the middle of Jan. and they want
that to be a hands on, out in the woods, session. This will give them a real
feel of using the GPS and how the surroundings effect the satellites and
accuracy. The final session (date ?) will be on reading topo maps and UTM in
conjunction with a GPS. Interest on this session may not be as great.
During the break there was a lot of discussion on other ways to use the GPS
within the parks system, such as marking/verifying boundaries, trail
maintenance and placement of signs, verifying trail distances, etc. I obviously
mentioned SLAGA and Geocaching and some had heard of it and even looked for
caches. Others had not heard of it but EVERYONE thought that it was a great
idea for the parks and see no problem with caches being placed.
I mentioned Greensfelder had 6, W. Tyson had 4 or 5, and Lone Elk had 5.
Several of the rangers used GC.COM to follow the logs on caches in their parks.
I mentioned if there were any areas in the parks that we should not have caches
or they need to be moved, contact out group and we will contact the owner.
Naturally there was one area in question, Jedburgh-Glencoe. My two Aggets
caches! He keeps track of the logs on those caches and problems with the
locals, mainly from Jedburgh. He explained that there ARE illegal activities
(meth labs) in the area and was concerned about our safety. I told him where my
caches are and that is County Park property but he said to NOT vary from the
trail into the woods on the Jedburgh end.
Then another ranger though it would be a good idea for the parks to put on a
geocaching presentation for the public. I told him that we were (SLAGA) going
to do that and everything was set up for April 5th for the whole day. That made
us look proactive! So then I threw out the idea of the County Parks getting
involved with placing their own caches (Like Whitecliff, Cleveland Metroparks,
and Warner Parks in Nashville). They thought it was a great idea and want to
talk about that in the early Spring. They would be stocked with Park propaganda
and freebies, free swimming passes, etc.
I think this is a great step for SLAGA to get our name and the sport out in
public view, especially with the County Parks behind us.
Rich
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