State owned forest crop land

[cacheseekers]

A friend and I are curious about getting permission to place caches in land that is owned by the state, which is not designated as a “park” and is “forest crop” land. From our understanding you can hike, snowmobile and otherwise travel through any land that is “forest crop”. In either case we would like to seek permission from whoever the owner may be to do so.

The main question is there a website or something that could help in determining who to contact to seek permission considering there really isn’t a park ranger? I know answering this question would help if we had some lat/lon to post.. I’ll see if we can find some. Has anyone else come across wanting to place caches in forest crop land?

Nick

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of The Cacheseekers

http://www.cacheseekers.com

[Miata]

I’m going to go out on a limb and say owners might not be all that open to the idea of Geocaching. Not to say that it can’t be done.

My understanding of “Forest Crop land” is that the land owner is given a big tax break and is entered into a long term contract with the state and must follow specific guidelines as to forest management and land use.

Interesting idea though! I’m going watch this thread to see the others replies.

[This message has been edited by Miata (edited 07-14-2004).]

[GrouseTales]

quote:

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Originally posted by Miata:

My understanding of “Forest Crop land” is that the land owner is given a big tax break and is entered into a long term contract with the state and must follow specific guidelines as to forest management and land use.

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This is my understanding also. Forest crop lands (FCL) are private properties that receive tax breaks. In return for receiving lower taxes, the landowners must allow hunting and fishing on the land. Any other uses must have special permission from the land owner.

For Geocaching, FCL’s would need permission from the land owner. It would be handled just like any other private property.

You can request lists from the DNR that show all the properties in a certain county. There is a fee for these printouts, which it is different for each county. The fee is based on how many pages they need to photo copy.

The print out would show you the owner and the legal description of the land. You need a plat book to figure out where the land is located. Several years ago I had the DNR mail me lists for several counties. It was very difficult to figure out where the land was located, and extemely difficult to determine boundaries.

You can find more information and links on the DNR website. This is a link for the Forest Crop Lands.

[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 07-14-2004).]

[Miata]

I have been thinking about this today and was thinking if it is a big company like Tigerton Lumber or Consolidated used to be, then it might not be too hard to get permission and or know where the boundrys are.

The activity is not much different than hiking if the cache container isn’t hidden like Houdini hid it. My guess is that you had one of these mega owners in mind.

Keep us informed!

[beggymike14]

A MANAGED FOREST CROPLAND LANDOWNERS PERSPECTIVE:

My family recently put 150 acres into MFL, solely for the tax benfits received by doing so.

Under the contract, we are aware that for 25 years the area designated as managed forest land is open to the public. The public DOES have to receive landowners permission in order to access the land, and one can be fined for trespassing if caught on the land without permission.

It is true that if you can track down the owners name and address/number, and gain permission, you can access this “open” land, if access is either from public property, a road, or other private lands with permission. From being on the other side of this topic, I may have no problem granting you permission to go on the property. As a cacher and aware of the traffic some caches receive, I would be extremely reluctant to allow you to place the cache knowing that others would coming in repeatedly. Granted each one of these people would in turn have to be granted permission by the land owner, and that would have to be CLEARLY laid out on the cache sheet.

Personally, I would stay away from privately held lands, knowing the landowners perspective. This could be a different debate if this land is FCL or MFL and is held by a company, such as a paper mill or a public utility. Being neither, I don’t know their opinion.

[This message has been edited by beggymike14 (edited 07-14-2004).]

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