On May 26 I reported in a post called Geocache Confusion that all geocaches in Gatineau Park were to be archived. Last night Gordon Dewis posts what is essentially a summing up of the clarification of that confusion that, in the mean time, has played out on several geocaching blogs.
Assuming that not everyone reads all the comments that accumulate on GuideGatineau posts (and quite a few did on this topic) here’s the update:
Turns out the NCC hadn’t initiated the ban, but instead it had been an initiative of a volunteer who works for the company that administers the online system geocachers use to tell other geocachers where they’ve stashed their caches. The NCC does want caches removed from a certain percentage of the Gatineau Park, the areas deemed most ecologically sensitive, but they hadn’t made any moves to start that process yet. So now local geocachers are asking if that volunteer can have jurisdiction over the park withdrawn. And Gordon, bighearted guy that he is, included an apology to the NCC for flack the geocachers misdirected at them.
The cards that GuideGatineau has begun distributing to promote the website are considered to be highly environmentally responsible due to the fact that the paper used is 100% recycled and is produced using energy from biofuels plus the ink is vegetable based.
There’s an extensive debate about this at
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=251300
From an outsider’s perspective it seems to me that the reviewer overstepped their authority but did so thinking they were doing what the NCC wanted (though they don’t seem to have researched that part too deeply). As a result people got upset and a lot of finger pointing went on and it all ended in tears.
This image actually does appear in that thread:
It hasn’t really ended in tears, because the reviewer has changed his course of action and is only asking cache owners to remove caches from the integral conservation zone.
I’m still confused…
Does this mean visiting Mackenzie King Cave(former geocache “caving 101″) will soon be outlawed?
I guess the answer depends on where that cache is in relation to the Integral Conservation Zone.
Gordon looked at which were where in this post:
http://gordon.dewis.ca/2010/03/24/a-closer-look-at-geocaching-and-the-gatineau-park-ecosystem-conservation-plan/