8Mar/101
Geocaching in Gatineau Park
The blog geonarcissa reports that the "Ottawa geomob" did some geocaching this past weekend, finding 10 caches, three of which were inside Gatineau Park.
The post has pictures and it looks like good clean fun.
I do know that Gatineau Park has begun studying geocaching in the Park in order to better understand its impact. Because it is a relatively new activity they aren't sure what the good and bad aspects of geocaching might be. I was told that there are aproximately 200 geocache sites within Park limits and that some of these have not been visited in more than 2 years, making one wonder when do these caches begin to represent garbage left in the park.
March 8th, 2010 - 12:18
If you visit Geocaching.com, you’ll see that we have an extensive list of cache placement guidelines and encourage a practice we call “CITO” – “Cache In, Trash Out.” Geocaches are maintained by their owners – those geocaches that are found infrequently are likely visited from time to time by their owners. They certainly aren’t garbage. When geocaches reach the end of their useful life, the owner of the geocache or another geocacher will remove the container.
Our own research has found that distant, off-trail caches are better for the environment than caches placed close to trails. Isolated caches are visited infrequently, and the geocachers who do visit them take different routes, which minimizes their impact. Geocaches close to trails get heavier traffic, which results in greater impact on the immediate area around the cache. Good cache owners are sensitive to this, and will take this into consideration when deciding how long a cache should stay in place.
The geocachers in this area greatly appreciate the NCC allowing us to use its various lands for our game. Geocachers are generally respectful, conscientious visitors to these spaces in all seasons. We respect the rules, and we are quick to notify each other when problems arise or conditions change that warrant the removal of a geocache. It would be a shame to alienate an entire community of enthusiastic outdoors people with unnecessarily restrictive rules. I encourage anyone involved in policy decisions with the NCC to visit the geocaching website, http://www.geocaching.com, as well as the website for the local geocaching club, http://www.ottawageocaching.com, and to involve geocachers in these discussions.