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Geocachers -
Geocaching
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Friday, 10 August 2007 00:10 |
Until last year, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources did not allow geocaching within state parks. Instead, it allowed "virtual geocaching," where coordinates would lead not to a placed cache but to a natural or structural feature.
"It was really ineffective," said Chuck Kartak, deputy director for the state parks system. "No one really does that."
Now, geocaching is allowed, as long as each cache is registered with the regional park in which it's placed.
"We need a permit so we know what's out there," Kartak said. "If we were to do a prescribed burn or some sort of resource management activity, we'd want the caches out of there beforehand."
In fashioning its policy, the state and Eden Prairie looked to others. Three Rivers Park District, which now has about 160 caches within its 27,000 acres, was one of the first agencies to create geocaching rules.
The guidelines remain similar to those the district approved in 2002, said Marlene Witucki, a park district employee. Examples include: No caches on regional trails. All caches must be registered with the park district. No burying caches. All caches must be within 25 feet of trails.
But since 2002, the rules have changed in two key ways. Then, only three caches were allowed per park; now, up to 20 can be placed in one park. Then, the park district removed caches after 12 months; now they can remain there longer.
Geocachers seem OK with the district's policy, Werner said, but wish it didn't include the rule of keeping caches close to trails. And many don't like the 20-cache limit, which Witucki said is maxed out in many parks.
In general, geocachers follow the rules, Witucki said. All of the dozen geocachers and regulators interviewed for this article said the geocaching community is extremely self-regulating.
"They are so respectful," Witucki said. "They've been no problem, a pleasure to work with."
Webmasters post caches on www.geocaching.com only after making sure permits are in place and everything checks out. And if something's askew -- such as a cache being on private, rather than public, property -- geocachers are quick to point it out.
"That whole process prevents 99.9 percent of any problem coming up," said Erin Wenneson, recreation specialist for Duluth's parks.
Carver County has a registration process, but Chaska, Chanhassen, Plymouth and most other west-metro cities don't have geocaching policies.
"We don't have any regulations," said Plymouth's Recreation Superintendent Diane Evans, "because we haven't noticed any problems."
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