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The Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources), in an effort to be responsive to the wishes of the geocaching community, has changed their geocaching policy to allow some forms of geocaching in some State Natural Areas. This policy change was brought about in part by the WGA through member input in these forums.
@new DNR Policy wrote:
Geocaching is considered an acceptable outdoor recreational activity for most Department properties. It shall not be allowed in Wisconsin State Natural Areas or areas that cannot tolerate human traffic or disturbance of the flora or soil, except in the case of virtual and earth caches. Permission must first be secured from the WI DNR Endangered Resources staff before placing virtual or earth caches on SNAs. Under no circumstances shall a container be placed on Department lands without prior written notification to the Department manager of the land in question.
Although geocaching.com no longer lists virtual caches, it would be possible to place a virtual stage of a multi-cache in order to highlight a particular area of interest. The physical geocache container could then be placed outside of the SNA. Still no containers, waypoint tags, or markings will be allowed in the SNA.
Primarily because of the risk of the potential damage from trampling of natural communities and spreading of invasive species (Garlic Mustard, Purple Loostrife, etc…), geocaching of any type will still not be permitted in many of the SNA’s. Only in the more often visited or less sensitive areas will permission be granted.
Procedure for submitting an Geocache in an SNA:
- 1. Record the coordinates of the location to be used in the SNA. Also record the name of the SNA, a description of the area, the type of cache, and if it is a “virtual” stage of a multi-cache, the proposed question to answer.
2. Submit this information to the DNR Endangered Resources staff for review:
3. Upon approval from the DNR (Thomas Meyer), submit the Geocache Notification Form to him (contact information above) and he will follow up with the appropriate DNR land manager for the cache placement. Thomas will then forward the completed Geocache Notification Form to the appropriate land manager.
4. If this is a multi-cache or offset cache, the physical geocache container can be placed. Be sure any containers or waypoint tags are outside of the boundaries of the SNA.
5. Submit the geocache to geocaching.com. Please be sure to include in the long description the notice that the geocache notification form has been submitted. You can find that note at: http://www.wi-geocaching.com/hiding . Also include in a “To Reviewer” note all of the information obtained in Step 1. Be sure and use the “waypoints” tool to enter the information for other stages if it is a multi-cache.
If you have any questions regarding cache placement, post your question in the Help Forum or feel free to contact one of your Wisconsin geocaching.com reviewers: cheese-wis, WGA2, or wis-kid.
😀 Well, I would say it’s a definite step in the right direction!
Thanks for the go-ahead on this one. I will assume that if I submit form with the info on my currently archived Earthcache and it gets approved, then it can be reactivated. KEWL!
This is great news.
So with this policy, could you place a string of 3,4, or 5 “virtual” stages in a row? It sounds like yes, buttt. The SNA I’m thinking of allows hunting, horses, mountain bikes and the like. Hiking off trail is allowed. I was hoping something like this would come along, but?
Anne, your assumption is correct. You might want to start with geoaware to make sure your cache will still meet their guidelines before you approach the DNR.
Some other notes:
Even if you are placing your physical cache off of DNR property, you still have to submit the notification form to cover off the virtual stage.
If you place your physical cache in a separate DNR Property, you might need to submit a second form. Example: If you do a virtual stage at Baxter’s Hollow with a final in Devil’s Lake State Park, you need to notify Thomas Meyer for the SNA, the Nature Conservancy (property owner of the SNA), and the ranger at Devil’s Lake. On the other hand, if your virtual stage was in Parfrey’s Glen, which is part of Devil’s Lake, one form does the whole job.
Not every property will be approved for virtual stages. Think about Leave No Trace when you plan your virtual stages. I’ve already had the Milwaukee County Parks guy tell me that he doesn’t want any virtual stages in Franklin Savanna. Since they own the property, its their call. (Basically, they don’t want anyone going there. Its nothing against us.)
I want to thank Buy the Tie (Brian) for his work on this giant step forward. Being a recent addition to the WGA Board of Directors I find that he has been working on this for a long, long time. He has been patient when patience was called for, and tenacious when tenacity was called for, and got this change approved basically by patiently working with the DNR and educating them over a course of several months. His patient work with the DNR has payed off big time here, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his work here.
Thanks Tie!!!!
zuma
Thanks to all who worked so hard to get this changed with the DNR. It’s a step in the right direction. Thanks Brian!!
Saw the subject, and my little head had visions of sugarplums. Thanks for the persistence and dedication. Hopefully many will be able to enjoy some additional areas that were not known to exist to them. Thanx
Buy the Tie-Brian is also work very hard on another subject and hopefully will be making a similar announcement soon on the topic! He deserves a few adda-boys!
@cheezehead wrote:
Buy the Tie-Brian is also work very hard on another subject and hopefully will be making a similar announcement soon on the topic! He deserves a few adda-boys!
He does indeed!
Just wanted to say the process for getting a hide in a SNA went fairly smoothly.
Step one – I started by just sending an email explaining what I wanted to do. A very quick response granted me approval. Step two -made the hide. Step 3 – Submitted the DNR form, Step 4 Put the hide up for review. It was published Step 5 – got second approval back for the location from the DNR.
In the future, I guess I didnt realize aproval was needed after submitting the form. But will rearrange step 4 and 5 in the future.
With this change in policy, Can this cache be unarchived?
Can you Par Frey’s Glen? GC80AEI never really understood why it was archived in the first place. One can get the necessary info from the road almost.
Only the cache owner can request that a cache be “unarchived”. In this case, the cache would still need to meet all the new requirements for listing, as outlined above. Rather than unarchive this virtual, why not just place a new offset cache in the area? The SNA is a rather small area, and Devil’s Lake State Park is right there for hiding locations (and surprisingly not all that crowded (with caches).
RE: Step #5 in the procedures
I have submitted my Earthcaches directly to http://www.earthcache.org/ as GC reviewers do not approve these caches.
I’m wondering if the step 5 procedures should be amended to make note of where to submit Earthcaches so that there is no confusion.
(Also the reviewer information in the first post of this thread could use some updating……)
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