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In this month's edition of National Geographic there is an article about
Badlands National Park. A significant portion of the article pertains to the
number of fossils contained in the park and the problem of looting.
The author interviewed the park paleontologist, Rachel Benton, who had this
to say:
"Besides outright theft, now we have to worry about geo-caching," says
Lopez.
The article continues:
"In this latest twist to a treasure hunt, people hide a container and
perhaps a trinket, take GPS coordinates, and put the coordinates on the
internet. Other people go to the location and try to find the cache.
Although a treasure hunt may seem a nuisance at worst, and can have the
positive effect of getting people out in nature, Lopez warns of an
escalation: Some geo-cachers are finding fossils in park rocks and putting
these coordinates on the Web. Anyone can then come to look--or to take."
Any thoughts? Not the most positive national exposure our beloved
hobby/sport could have, huh?
Dana Soldiers of Fortune
