This topic contains 91 replies, has 25 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
@digital_dan wrote:
So we should expect in the not too distant future, a form to fill out and send it to land managers for every public land in order to place a cache? Hard enough finding out who the few managers are for State land. Can’t imagine how difficult it will be to find who the land manager is for every piece of public land……..
You sound like you’re looking for a reason to stop geocaching… 😉
Would you rather have a blanket Ban on Geocaching or have at least the option of Notifying someone that you want to place a cache?
As for how hard it is to find land manager info, I’m sure someone will come up with a nifty database with the info in one location. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is someone working on it currently.
Obviously I’d prefer NOT to have special rules for county parks and municipalities either. But now that they know we have a policy with the DNR and they are talking to each other, seems likely they will want some kind of Policy as well. Doubtful they’ll just adopt the DNR Policy, as it won’t quite fit what they want to accomplish, so they’ll all eventually come out with their Geocaching Policy to which we will be obligated to ahere to.
I am not seeing any difficulty here. Our first cache was, in Havenwoods, DNR land. We sought permission to place it and the ranger showed us where he would prefer we not place it. We understood from the start that we needed permission to place caches. We placed several in county parks and sought permission for those too. We placed several in Sheboygan county, some were under the radar, others we were able to get permission for. The ones under the radar were the only ones we had problems with. We hid a few without permission because we could not identify the land managers.
I don’t recall any land manager giving us a flat NO.
Now we have a defined procedure for DNR managed lands. It seems to me that this should make things easier. DNR land managers are now more aware of our activities, and of their own authority. We are more aware of their concerns. We are working together to keep the parks open.
Where is the difficulty?
Well Dan, if you have soooo much problems with all this, Then why not just stop Geocaching all together?? That way you blood pressure wont go up.
I had a very nice talk with the Local DNR Rep/Land manager.
He said it State land, it’s open to all that want to hike, hunt, fish, whatever. He said that he looked at the site(GC.com I would think) and said he notice that there were many around. He had talk to others in the office and no one seemed to mind. Even said if I was to put a cache out on one of the State owned island on the Chippewa Flowage that I would have to submit the form to a different person, but should be OK.
So up here in the “Sticks” of Sawyer County, the DNR had no problems with Geocaching and told me to have FUN!!
So there ya have it!
So, has everybody started submitting the forms for caches already on DNR land? and when does that have to be done before caches have to removed and archived?
I submitted mine today. I haven’t heard anything about a time limit for forms to be sent in. Frankly I think it will be a very long time (if ever)…before the DNR starts pulling caches without them. But who knows?
The biggest reason that I submitted mine was to get it on file somewhere and lesson the chance that the bomb squad will be called.@digital_dan wrote:
So we should expect in the not too distant future, a form to fill out and send it to land managers for every public land in order to place a cache? Hard enough finding out who the few managers are for State land. Can’t imagine how difficult it will be to find who the land manager is for every piece of public land……..
How do you jump to this conclusion?
@buy_the_tie wrote:
When we were meeting with the DNR, they mentioned that they were getting asked by local cities and parks departments about how they were handling geocaching.
I would expect to see some local parks departments adopting the DNR policy.
Way better than just saying “NO” to geocaches.
Not jumping to conclusions. The comment was based on what is actually taking place. I think we pretty much have to expect other land managers will expect at least the same level of notifications as the DNR Land managers.
@lostby7 wrote:
Frankly I think it will be a very long time (if ever)…before the DNR starts pulling caches without them. But who knows?
I thought the whole idea here was to be proactive with the DNR. If notifications are not sent to the DNR for caches already on DNR Land, when/if they find them they will assume we are deliberately not abiding by the Policy. Wouldn’t that be more of a reason than they had before the Policy to ban Geocaching? Before you could plead ignorance, now it’s a deliberate violation. I don’t think we have any choice. Caches on DNR Land must have notifications sent in, or they must be pulled and archived, otherwise we are in viloation of the Policy.
@digital_dan wrote:
I thought the whole idea here was to be proactive with the DNR. If notifications are not sent to the DNR for caches already on DNR Land, when/if they find them they will assume we are deliberately not abiding by the Policy. Wouldn’t that be more of a reason than they had before the Policy to ban Geocaching? Before you could plead ignorance, now it’s a deliberate violation. I don’t think we have any choice. Caches on DNR Land must have notifications sent in, or they must be pulled and archived, otherwise we are in viloation of the Policy.
The DNR reads cache pages and can see placement dates. If a cache is already in place, it would not be in violation of new policies without specific inclusion of existing caches. That specific inclusion does not exist. At this point, documentation of existing caches at the DNR level is voluntary but advised. It is not mandatory.
In short I will say in the long run I think better for all but only time will tell. The unfortunate part of this is the burden is now on the approvers. As some pointed out there are a lot of geocachers that are new or just don’t read or know about WGA. They are not aware of the policy. The approvers have to be extra stringent in my eyes to make sure these new caches do have the permission. Some will look at the approvers as…… well use your imagination.
@grousetales wrote:
The policy is retroactive. That means that all existing caches on State Owned lands need to have the Notification form filled out and mailed to the property manager. Please check the caches you own, and if on DNR lands, fill out the form and mail it in. The property managers have indicated they want to know where geocaches are on the lands they manage.
This does not sound like it’s voluntary
The DNR Geocaching form, and the DNR page do not address existing caches. I have been given conflicting information from our reviewers. Our reviewers do not establish DNR policy. I have heard “grandfathering” discussed in the presence of 2+ DNR land managers on 2+ occasions and no denial was made. If you would like a DNR interpretation of the rules, contact, Kate Zurlo-Cuva, (608) 266-7617.
At this point, I would like to se a reiteration of the policy on grandfathering by each of our reviewers as well.
In any case, it is suggested that cachers complete the form and submit it. If you obtained permission up-front as you should have, the process should be painless. If you have not obtained permission to place your cache on State managed lands, it is suggested that you remove them and archive them or get that permission now.
Geocaching 101 – get permission.
Found the following Post over in the General area by sweetlife.
–
“Just a note to all who have placed caches in the Peshtigo River State Forest. The WDNR will be removing your caches soon if you don’t get the approval form filed with them. Here is the link http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/other/pdfs/form2500-118.pdf
We received a email recently that our cache was removed from Gov Thompson State Park and we could pick it up at the office or fill out the form, get it approved, then replace the cache. We have done the latter, we are waiting for the placement to be approved then will re hide the cache.”Guess I’m not surprised to see that the DNR said one thing to the WGA and are now not applying what they said consistently. I would expect to see spotty application of the Policy based on how each land manager decides to interpret the Policy.
Again… Get permission. You can avoid all the hastles by adhering to the original guidelines given to us by groundspeak. Get permission first
Originally suggested in 2000.
The forum ‘Wisconsin DNR’ is closed to new topics and replies.