This article was written on assignment for Blue Ridge Outdoors in 2001
It’s the same old story with a high-tech twist. The explosion of geocaching—the sport where people hide dime-store treasure and invite others to hunt for it using Global Positioning Satellite receivers has the National Park Service (NPS) scrambling to remove caches as soon as they are planted. Officials have been pulling caches in response to NPS superintendent Tom Gilbert’s comments that the activity amounted to “littering, abandoning property, and the unauthorized use of public lands.”
Naturally, geocaching enthusiasts disagree, and sentiments on both sides are running strong regarding geocaching’s environmental impact and citizens’ rights to access public lands.
Officials have pulled several caches in Prince William Forest Park and Chatham Manor (VA). And letterboxing, a related caching activity in which participants use the low-tech map-and-compass method to locate hidden logbooks (see “Getting Stamped,” p. x), has also come under fire.
Many letterboxers believe their activity, with its tiny plastic boxes and lowly rubber stamps, is nothing like geocaching, and they’re concerned authorities are lumping them together with their high-tech, treasure-planting brethren.
Kathy Lange, a Virginia letterboxer said, “Their position is motivated and fueled by the publicity that geocaching is getting and causing letterboxing to receive.”
Ironically, no formal “anti-caching” NPS policy exists. Officials are using existing laws to justify cache pulling, but may be motivated more by concerns about the potential environmental damage from cache hunting.
Tom Gilbert noted that caches could be placed on “critical nesting/breeding areas of threatened or endangered animals, fragile plant communities, and archeological resources.” Reports of confused cachers - many of whom bushwhack, drive, and trample their way to caches - demonstrates that reckless placements can draw people into sensitive areas, encourage rogue trail cutting, and may violate private landowners rights.In this day of “Leave No Trace” ethics, reducing environmental impact is the name of the game. Unless cachers can prove that they can cache with near-zero impact, they won’t be doing it on public lands.
In a gesture of cooperation, Jay Chamberlain has removed his caches from Shenandoah National Park, noting that there are “people within NPS that have the mentality of simply enforcing existing rules without question, and others who would like to work with cachers on plans to coexist.” Although there is no media outcry from environmental organizations yet, they will likely enter the fray soon. Meanwhile, geocachers are bolstering their image with “cache-in/trash-out” programs. Letterboxers and geocachers are trying to legitimize their sports to park officials and the public.
Many cachers believe that a regulated permit system – with approved containers, locations, and clues that control the paths that users take to caches – is the best solution to the impasse.
Marcia Keener, of the NPS Office on Policy, believes differently. She says, “the virtual caching movement [chasing landmarks, not caches] appears to be a more low-impact and less conflict-laden way to combine the fun and skill of GPS hunting with the adventure of finding specific sites or features in our national parks.” Complete prohibition would likely drive caching underground, diffusing the efforts of those most interested in establishing an impact-minimizing cache ethic and exposing our public lands to reckless renegade cache placements.
Is there room for caching in National Parks? Only time will tell. One thing is clear though; the free-for-all on our public lands is over.
Anyone planting or finding caches should consult proper guidelines available at www.geocaching.org and www.letterboxing.org.
Tags: conservation, geocaching, GPS, National Park Service, writing assignments
