From the Pick and Shovel Gazette

[sbukoskyParticipant]

The following is from a newsletter of a prospecting club that I belong to. It applies to geocaching too so please read it and think about it’s message.

Thirty years ago my great aunt made the
comment “it all started with the little
turtles”. We all laughed for a minute
until she made her point. The erosion of
our rights always starts with a little thing and ends up with everybody losing.
In my youth, we all backpacked and camped in
our forests and never worried about who owned the land, because we all knew, we own the land. The forests belong to the American people. The land is there to be used and respected by the same people.
These days many groups and agencies claim
they own the land and do not like being told they are only there to manage or service lands that belong to all American citizens. Fees for using our forests have become an accepted practice among many groups, and so have road closures to protect
a species that may or may not exist on a particular area all because some biologist refers to an area as a potential habitat.
I got my first “Little Turtle” when I was around seven years old. Along with the turtle my parents taught me to feed it everyday, clean its water everyday and wash my hands every time I was finished playing with it. If more people had taken the trouble to learn these simple rules, maybe
today we would still have turtles in our pet stores. It is the same with mining claims and other lands we use. Every time we use a property, we should pick up our trash, fill in our holes and leave the
property cleaner than you found it.

[Author]

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