Approval challenges?

[Trekkin and BirdinParticipant]

I’m thrilled to see that the WGA has added this forum, so us rock nuts don’t bore the rest of the community with our incessant conversation! 😉

I know some of us have had some big challenges to getting approval for our earthcaches and wondered if maybe this would be a good place to share our thoughts on what led to success in the end.

I can start. I recently got an Earthcache placed in Effigy Mounds National Monument. Not Wisconsin, but just across the river. One of the biggest concerns they had related to the sensitive nature of the cultural aspects of the site. Working back and forth over a couple weeks’ time, we reached a listing that satisfied my needs as a cache placer and their needs as park rangers. So far, two cachers have visited it and given it great press. I know of one other cacher who has shared the listing with a middle school earth science teacher who may plan a field trip for the kids to put their new-found GPSr skills to use. The park rangers have appreciated the visits by the cachers afterward to let them know they enjoyed the visit. Key in all of this has been the reassurance that should it be discovered that a cacher abuses the right to respectfully visit the site, I can archive the listing with one keystroke.

Currently I’m awaiting word on another possible earthcache in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, one that will be awesome any time of year, but spectacular in the wintertime. The parties that grant approval are running it by the Reserve board, for many of the same reasons Effigy Mounds was at first reluctant. Still waiting to hear back from them, but being available and sensitive to the concerns of the land managers seems to really be important. It isn’t just all about earthcaches! 😯

I’d love to hear what kinds of things they’ve discovered to assure land managers that an earthcache is a good thing to allow.

[Lostby7Participant]

I will be visiting your mound EC in a couple weeks 😛 so WOOT too that.

I have found in placing 7 of my current 8 EC’s that the land managers have had no reservations about the placements and really liked the idea of the Earth Cache as both a way to get increased traffic and provide an educational experience for the visitors.

The one which I had difficulty in placing was due to the area being potentially dangerous. Now to get this approved by the land manager I had to compromise quite a bit and provide ample warnings on the cache page that the area is potentially unsafe if the trails were left. I think in most cases this should not be an issue as we as responsible EC placers would not (at least I hope not) place caches in areas of unreasonable danger.

A couple of my EC’s are also in SNA (State Natural Areas) which require special approvals. Even in these areas the park management have been very agreeable to the placement of EC’s. I think the bottom line is that we need to carefully think out the path the visitors will take and what tasks they need to complete; the visits required by us should cause the least amount of impact to the area as possible. If we can be successful in that endeavor, I think we go a long way in streamlining the approval process and the comfort the park management has with the placement.

I too have two more EC’s in the final stages of completion…at least one of these is in an SNA so I will remember to take extra care to make sure that the visitor makes as little of an impact as possible.

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