[Az-Geocaching] FW: Archeaological Damage

[Scott Wood]

At 11:00 AM 8/7/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>I sent the following email in response to the misleading story
>in the Republic today.  I don't expect to hear anything back,
>but if I do, I'll foward along.

The following is what I sent this morning:

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I just read your article about geocaching.  As an active geocacher in the 
Tucson area, and feel that your article was very misleading and one sided.

You never presented any evidence that geocaching was the cause of the 
vandalism of the sites mentioned.  The hobby was just declared guilty by 
mere association.  While it is possible that people out geocaching could 
have caused the damage, there was never any evidence to indicate that it was.

I also have a problem with the elitist attitudes of those interviewed for 
your article.  The article mentions that they hike the area regularly, but 
they seem to have a problem with us "normal" people hiking the same areas 
that they visit regularly.  These are public lands, not their personal play 
grounds.

As an avid geocacher and 4 wheel drive enthusiast, I make great efforts to 
leave no trace of my visiting an area.  I enjoyed the outdoors long before 
the advent of geocaching, and will continue to enjoy the outdoors long 
after I quit geocaching, but I take great offense at the notion that all 
geocachers should be lumped into the same group.  While there might be 
irresponsible geocachers out there, they are also going to be irresponsible 
regardless of what their outdoor activity is.  I am not a high tech vandal.

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The following was the response that I received, in it's entirety.

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Thanks for the note. It sounds like you respect the environment, so I don't
think that the damage sources spoke about in the story was aimed at you.

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In liberty,

Scott

wood@myblueheaven.com
www.myblueheaven.com