It's Geocache, Not Geotrash

Filed in archive Outdoor Blogs on November 22, 2006

Mark of the Arkansas Geocaching blogspot has alerted us to the new that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has withdrawn plans to permit geocaching on agency lands. In an obvious display of turn-of-the-century thinking, the commission called the sport "the new game (of) geocaching" and compared it to treasure hunting.

To me, treasure hunting suggests more of a pirating/pillaging fiasco than the actual art of navigating through nature to find and log an area that another adventurer thought was worth sharing with you.

The commission certainly needs to do its homework, as this quote shows:

The panel had planned to consider a proposal for a permit system for geocache games Thursday but Doyle Shook, the agency's chief of wildlife management, pulled it off the table.

"We're just not ready for this," Shook said.

Just not ready for the public - who happen to own these lands - to use them in a non-destructive, educational way? Tell me again why we've set the land aside. There must be something I'm missing.