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We received the following email from a geocacher in Minnesota:
Hi there. Over here in Minnesota we are in a battle with the state. They have recently made it illegal to leave a cache in a State Park. Some other parks are now looking at the issues also. I was just wondering what it takes to get an Association going? How many members do you have there in Wisconsin. I think if we can come together we can work together and come up with a way to make this activity work in our parks. Thank you for your time. Rob. “Bobhiker”PS. If you read our forum you can see what we are dealing with.
Their web site and forum link is: http://www.mngeo.com/Here is how I replied to him:
Rob,The main thing it took for us to get our association going was some us working together to put in the effort to plan some events and create a web site. So far all of our organizational work has been done via the internet — either in forum discussions or in pre-arranged chat sessions.
As far as we have been able to determine, there is no official policy on geocaching by the Wisconsin DNR. You can read more about that in our forums at this link: http://www.wi-geocaching.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/000002.html
Regarding working together, we would certainly be willing to help in any way we can.
Ken Braband
Wisconsin Geocaching Association[This message has been edited by kbraband (edited May 16, 2002).]
There is a DNR policy. This is what they said when I emailed them:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding geocaching in the state parks.
> At this time, we do not have a policy except that geocaching is prohibited
> in our state natural areas. However, now that geocaching is become more
> popular and the activity is growing on our properties, we are looking to
> expand our policy. While we agree with you that it is a fun sport that
> will bring different users to our parks and let them explore places they
> may not normally see on a typical visit, some concerns have been raised.
> Cache-seekers should stay on designated trails, however we are
> finding this is not the case which brings up some initial concerns as to
> the effects on invasive species. Users are trekking around and can
> unknowingly pick up seeds from non-natives back to sensitive, untouched
> areas. Or, the users can come upon sensitive resources (i.e.
> archaeological sites), knowingly or unknowingly, and we don’t know if any
> damage is being done. There is concern as to the types of items that are
> being put in the caches, such as knives or any other weapons or
> contraband. As well, many times property managers don’t know a cache is
> hidden on their property, and therefore we do not know if they are placed
> in restricted areas. For example, we’ve seen on http://www.geocaching.com that a
> cache has been hidden in Wyalusing State Park and one reviewer encourages
> other cache-seekers to stand on a rock wall to get good view. This wall
> was built by the CCC years ago and we strongly discourage anyone from
> standing on the wall for fear of injury to themselves or the wall.
> We hope to have a new policy in place soon. Thanks again for your
> inquiry.iso, thanks for posting your email response. Please provide the name and location of the DNR person who sent it so we can keep track of their latest opinions. Thanks.
I sent an email to Sue Black, and got a reponse from Sara Pearson. From my understanding, Sue Black is in charge of State Parks and Trails, and I would assume Sara works for her. Sue Black works in Madison, and as I said before, is in charge of the whole thing.
[This message has been edited by iso50 (edited May 16, 2002).]
Hi! It was my cache that was confiscated by the MN DNR. Thanks for your support everyone!
I would just like to clear this up a bit: Bump On A Log is my personal web site, it has no connection with any Minnesota geocaching group or association. It’s a diary of sorts, to track our (me & my husband’s) geocaching adventures.
I don’t want any confusion, because there’s been talk now of getting together a Minnesota geocaching group, which would be the first as far as I know.
Thanks again, I hope we can come to a compromise with the parks.
Brenna
quote:
Originally posted by 88girl:
I would just like to clear this up a bit: Bump On A Log is my personal web site, it has no connection with any Minnesota geocaching group or association.I don’t want any confusion, because there’s been talk now of getting together a Minnesota geocaching group, which would be the first as far as I know.
That’s interesting, and thanks for clearing it up. Your site is listed on the Great Plains website as the Minnesota geocaching site ‘This site is for the Minnesota geocacher offering lists of caches and log entries from caches. ‘HERE, and we took our clue from them when we listed your site as the Minnesota association site. We’ll get that corrected, thanks!
[This message has been edited by CacheCows (edited May 16, 2002).]
Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that we now have something going here, so come on over and say hi! You’re all welcome to participate in the community forum!
Please update your “Other Geocaching Groups” page to Geocachers Exploring Minnesota, at the link posted above.
Thank you neighbors!
Edited because I still manage to mess up my UBB coding *every* time. lol.
[This message has been edited by 88girl (edited May 24, 2002).]
quote:
Originally posted by 88girl:
Please update your “Other Geocaching Groups” page to Geocachers Exploring Minnesota, at the link posted above.All done, thanks for the update, and good luck with your new organization! Let us know if we can help in any way!
Alan
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