[DCexplorer]

Thanks for taking the time for the detailed response. However, if these are the reasons for the DNR discouraging SNA bans, I stand by my assertion that common sense would be a better determination of placement than an arbitrary ban.

-Inappropriate items in caches
-Off trail hiking
-State Natural Areas
-Historical areas
-Digging
-Wildlife disturbance

1. obviously, inappropriate items shouldn’t be in any cache, regardless of location.
2. many SNA’s don’t have established walking/hiking trails, yet they are still utilized by the public. In addition, I have seen firsthand the destruction that creating a hiking trail system has on the environment as low-use parks are “modernized” with clear-cutting large swaths of environmentally sensitive areas and covered with gravel. Nobody has suggested that bird-watching should be banned because someone may walk through a forest without walking paths following some bird call.
3. A Lot of State Natural Areas, at least a lot of them in Door County, are quite well visited. Adding a cache would not increase the visitor population or impact the environment in any meaningful fashion. Peninsula State Park and Whitefish Dunes State Park will still have plenty of visitors, with or without a cache.
4. Historical areas should be visited. If an old kiln is located in a ten acre park, why should the whole park be off limits, instead of just around the kiln? Keep the cache away from a sensative area, but put a note in it, that says, ‘while you’re here, why not visit the kiln?’
5. Digging is also not appropriate for any cache.
6. If wildlife runs in front of my car as I’m driving home at 60 MPH, it may be seriously disturbed. If it runs in front of me as I’m walking through the woods, I think we’ll both be just fine. Unless it’s a skunk.

Obviously, oversight is difficult when there’s well over a thousand caches in Wisconsin, and more all the time. I would hate to see us Geocachers get a bad rap, but I also would hate to see it become so homegenized (can’t do this! can’t do that!) that it isn’t fun and/or challenging anymore.

[DCexplorer]

While some SNAs are owned by private land trust groups & preservation groups, most, I would say, are owned by the DNR. As anyone knows, dealing with the DNR can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. If everybody had to get a signed affidavit from Madison just to place a cache on public land, the rate of cache placement would plummit. Same for local county and town boards. A county or town board troll’s unenlightened first reaction would be to say no, because it is always easier and safer to maintain the status quo.

I will modify my initial argument that if the SNA is owned by a private conservation group, then permission should be obtained beforehand. But if a government owned area has public access, then we should be able to utilize it for our rather discreet sport.

I am not advocating Geocache anarchy, but it is always going to be easier to archive a cache if unknown or unintended consequences make themselves apparent with badly placed caches than going through buracratic hell to place it at all.

[DCexplorer]

With all the attention this (these) caches have received in a short amount of time, apparantly there’s been a LOT of pent-up demand for caches in Kewaunee County.

[DCexplorer]

Hmmm… “Dam, Where’s that Cache?” shows up when you search zip code 54235 (Sturgeon Bay area) and it’s on the Geocaching.com map of the state of WI, although it’s no longer highlighted as a new cache, even though a first find hasn’t been logged yet. (Seems to me that a new cache should be highlighted until a find is logged, hmmm?) When I went to “LaSalle’s Surprise” it shows up as the nearest cache…

[DCexplorer]

If someone had a twisted sense of humor, they would place a cache near one of the two nuclear power plants, but not TOO close, so that there’d be a 50/50 chance of some security guard with an automatic weapon popping up and asking what the hell we’re doing…
Oh, the possibilities…
Hmmm, perhaps not a good idea…

[DCexplorer]

An interesting notion about vavcation caches, as I live in southern Door County, and Door County seems to have a lot of these “vacation caches,” and as someone intimately familiar with all areas of Door County, I feel placement of a lot of them could be better.
Kewaunee Co. isn’t far from me, but I am unfamiliar with the interesting nooks and crannies of the land that make for an interesting placement. But I will get a map of the county and try to find someplace interesting. I just found it interesting that the of all the counties in the state, only ONE has ZERO placements.

[DCexplorer]

True, but I’m not as familiar with Kewaunee County as I’d like to be in order to place a well-designed cache, but I will certainly get out a map and see what areas may be good. The obvious areas are along Hwy. 57 along the bay and Hwy. 42 along the lake, but perhaps there’s someplace in the interior… Does anybody else know Kewaunee County well?

[Author]

Posts