[GeoStL] Re: Caching in National Parks: Caching, Horse manure, and the National Park Service's meeting for a new Park Plan
- From: "Jim Bensman" <junkmailno@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 23:29:54 -0500
-
Don't get me wrong, if there is ever an issue of recreational enjoyment over
environmental protection, I will choose the environmental protection. I
have not done caches on this basis before. And I agree the National Parks
are special places that need utmost protection. I also think geocachers
need to do a better job of policing ourselves and minimizing impacts.
Something like leave no trace for geocaching.
If every inch of the National Parks were sensitive areas, you should not
have visited them. Most have roads, trails, lodges, buildings, etc. All of
these certainly have more impacts than a geocache would. But I agree a
badly placed geocache could have severe impacts and that is why I think they
should require NPS approval of the location.
I agree I would not want someone wondering off onto the tundra. I love the
trails in the tundra in Rocky MT National Park. They have signs all along
the trails in the tundra. What would be wrong with hiding a hide-a-key on
one of these signs? You can hide caches that keep people on trails. What
would be wrong with hiding a cache in a back county campsite 20 miles from
the trail head?
The geocache I hid in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways was in a 10 foot
wide patch of trees between the Lower Round Springs takeout parking lot and
a campsite. What was wrong with that location? Certainly, the geocaching
use of this area would be less than 1% of the people walking in this area.
What about one in a tree on an island in the middle of the Current River?
What about the Arch? Is there no place on the Arch grounds that could
safely hold a cache?
I am planning on flying to Portland in November for a meeting. I am hoping
to get some tourism in while I am out there. Olympic NP and Mt. St. Helens
are a couple of place I would like to visit and camp. Did you get anything
that tells what kind of weather to expect in November?
Jim Bensman
"Nature Bats Last"
> -----Original Message-----
> From: geocaching-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:geocaching-
> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of M. Bollinger
> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 10:03 PM
> To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [GeoStL] Re: Caching in National Parks: Caching, Horse manure,
> and the National Park Service's meeting for a new Park Plan
>
> -
> Jim,
>
> I am not going to comment on the horses and thier polution, but I would
> like to comment on geocaching on NPS land. I feel that every inch of our
> National Park System should be considered sensitive areas. Consider the
> hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors that each park get each year
> and imagine the geotrails you would find in very short order. Horses are
> kept on established trails, geocachers aren't.
>
> I just got back from Washington on Wednesday and, as on all of my
> vacations, I spend about 80-90% of my time in National Parks. I was at
> Ranier, St. Helens, Olympic and Cascades and they became National Parks
> because they are such beautiful and unique areas. They are the BEST of
> the best! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to cache but that pales in
> comparison to not seeing geotrails in sub-alpine tundra meadows at Ranier.
> I'm not a big fan of virtuals (and that's all you get in NPS land) but I'd
> much rather havie that than seeing a place where someone destroyed an area
> by turning over every rock and log looking for film canister. I've seen
> how geocachers treat land when they are looking for a cache and it's not
> very pretty.
> I met several NPS employees who were geocachers too and they feel as I
> do. There are pleanty of places to put caches but National Parks
> shouldn't be among them.
>
>
>
>
> Jim Bensman <junkmailno@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think the message to the NPS should be, yes there are sensitive areas
> in
> all National Parks and they should be protected. However, there are areas
> where geocaching can be done without problems. Instead of banning
> geocaching, the NPS should provide rules to make sure the caches are
> placed
> in a proper location and to help with the interpretation of the National
> Park.
>
>
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