[Az-Geocaching] Policy on Geocaching, cleanups...

[az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com]

In regard to Steve and Trisha's recent posts - I will throw in my support towards any kind of cleanup program/cache, be it official or not. Seems as if geocachers are oftentimes the 'good guys' out there in the outback already, and are concientious about the 'trash out' ethic, more so than the average, casual wilderness user. Perhaps we can use that to our advantage to promote geocaching as a wilderness-friendly activity with obvious benefit to the environment, depending upon the approach we take with cleanups and the FS.

I always considered it to be (to borrow a term from the Snaptek guys) 'good cache karma' to remove what I can each time I'm out on the trails. Some of them literally shock me with the amount of trash and discarded appliances left behind along them. I'll never understand what type of thinking allows this - as if it's OK to leave the stuff behind because it either does not matter, or that no one will see it, or someone else will take care of it. Funny, I've always found empty beverage containers *easier* to carry when empty - so why is it so hard to cart them back out from where they were originally brought to after drinking the contents? >:)

Specifically regarding Trisha's post - a good practice while caching might be to 'restore' the surrounding area to as natural a condition as possible after locating a cache - i.e., brush out footprints, replace rock cover, rock-hop as opposed to walk on soft dirt, etc. This may help to keep us out of hot water with the FS in the future as they 'watch' us, and our impact...

-Mike-