Larry,

That was a great letter that Stu wrote. Thanks for posting it.

WhereRWee?
Ken

 
> From: "Farquhar, Larry" <larry.farquhar@ipni.com>
> Date: 2002/08/08 Thu AM 09:29:10 EDT
> To: "'listserv@azgeocaching.com'" <listserv@azgeocaching.com>
> Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Roadrunner's slam on 4-wheeling
> 
> All;
>  
> You may have read the Email from Stu Olson to the list, responding to
> Roadrunner's original slam on ATV and 4-Wheelers. Stu's a a very active
> member of the Arizona Virtual Jeep Club (AZVJC), and is VERY active in
> fighting to keep our public lands open for the public (us). After reading
> Roadrunner's original Email, I also was very upset. But I knew the intent
> wasn't to slam 4-wheeling in general, but those few "rotten apples" who give
> 4-wheeling a bad name. I'm also a member of the AZVJC. However, geocaching
> has made me fairly inactive with the AZVJC. I know there's other AZVJC
> members who are geocachers.
>  
> Before Stu knew about Roadrunner's Email to this list, Stu had already
> Emailed a letter to the AZ Republic. Stu, and the entire AZVJC, are friends
> fighting to keep lands open to geocaching and responsible 4-wheeling. The
> following is Stu's Email to Ms. Leonard:
>  
> 
> Ms. Leonard,
> 
> I read your "A high-tech scavenger hunt" article in today's newspaper.
> Although I am not a "geocacher", I am aware of the popularity it has gained
> over the past years. With the improvements in GPS receivers and their drop
> in price, it is certainly easy to be the proud owner of one of these little
> beauties.
> 
> One item was incorrectly reported in your article. You stated (on page A2)
> that "Geocaching began in May 2000 when the Clinton administration
> unscrambled the electronic signals of the government-owned global
> positioning sytem, allowing civilians to use devices to steer cars or find
> missing hikers with pinpoint accuracy." While it is true that geocaching may
> very well have started in May, 2000, it was not because of any actions taken
> by the Clinton Administration. On or about May 1, 2002, then President
> Clinton lifted the requirement that caused the intentional degradation in
> the accuracy of the GPS signal. Neither he nor his administration can be
> given any kind of credit for making the GPS technology available to the
> civilian population and its subsequent use for steering cars or finding lost
> hikers. I was using a consumer grade GPS receiver long before May 1, 2000.
> As to your comment about it being able to steer a car....no...no...no! Would
> you feel confident in a car with a "steering system" that could guide your
> vehicle to within an accuracy of 6 to 20 feet? (those are your numbers, not
> mine) Thank you but no....I prefer to "steer" my vehicle with more precision
> than that. I am afraid that a 6 to 20 foot error would very well put me into
> the path of dangerous oncoming traffic. 
> 
> But, enough about the basics of GPS reception. I need to get to the point of
> this correspondence. As an environmentalist that fully enjoys virtually
> everything our public lands have to offer, I am saddened to hear that some
> irresponsible people are leaving their trash behind, making new trails, and
> even picking up native artifacts they find in a geocache area. I wonder how
> many of these people are familiar with the laws concerning removing an item
> from an archaeological site? I can tell you, from first hand experience,
> that many people have no idea that driving across the desert or up a big
> hill, where there is no trail, is unlawful in most of Arizona. I can speak
> to people leaving their trash behind....any road trip down I-10 or I-17 will
> yield supporting evidence that people certainly do litter.
> 
> The main point I found quite interesting is the apparent blame that your
> article places on those people that are participating in the geocaching
> sport (I guess we can call it a sport?) Let's first look at the facts you
> stated in the article:
> 
> 1. There are at least 18 known Arizona caches listed on the Internet that
> are on or near archaeological sites. (you didn't mention how many were
> actually on a site) 
> 
> 2. There are more than 10,900 known archaeological sites in Maricopa County.
> 
> 3. There are more than 50,400 archaeological sites in Arizona, not including
> those on Tribal lands.
> 
> 4. You stated that most of the archaeological locations have been kept
> secret for years, and officials have even required a new site steward to
> sign a confidentiality agreement. 
> 
> So...let me see if I understand what you are really saying.
> 
> 1. 0.0357143% of the geocache sites are located on or near an archaeological
> site in this state.
> 
> 2. Virtually no one, except the trusted site stewards and specific land
> management officials, no where the archaeological sites are.....and we have
> one or two site stewards (that you interviewed) that are upset because three
> and one half hundreths of just one percent of the total geocache sites in
> Arizona happen to be put on these secret archaeological sites.
> 
> It is sad that the geocachers are being held up as those that are ruining
> our archaeological sites but yet we won't tell them where the sites are so
> they wouldn't accidentally put their cache "at or near" an archaeological
> site. I realize this might very well be a damned if you do, damned if you
> don't kind of situation, but please apply some common sense here. Your
> article indicates that many of the Arizona geocaches are in remote
> locations....places that are difficult to get to. So, we then say shame on
> the geocachers for picking a challenging location to hide their
> cache.....and when it just happens to be on a secret archaeological site
> that no one told them about.....and it is their fault? You've got to be
> kidding, right?
> 
> Maybe it is not quite as bad as I am led to believe? Perhaps another way to
> look at it is:
> 
> 1. Wouldn't it be great if only 0.0357143% of our teenage population didn't
> complete high school?
> 
> 2. Wouldn't it be great if only 0.0357143% of the people driving through a
> Phoenix intersection ran the red light?
> 
> I do commend you for reporting that Mr. Brian Cluff, a person who helps run
> AZgeocaching.com, has not been contacted or notified about the apparent
> problem that is occuring at or near the secret archaeological sites.
> However, it is sad that the amount of text you devoted to Mr. Cluff is
> approximately 0.0357143% of your article. None the less....I am certain that
> all reading it will in no way be biased by this. 
> 
> Now that you have identified this problem, what are the paper's plans to
> help correct it? From what was written, it appears that a strong push
> towards educating those that enjoy geocaching would certainly go a long way
> in correcting this problem. Perhaps some public awareness commercials on the
> local TV stations (maybe even radio too) would make more aware of their
> inapropriate actions. Remeber, we have people randomly hiding little
> tuperware containers of goodies on secret archaeological sites that they
> have no knowledge of. 
> 
> I look forward to your next article that outlines the plans that will be
> implemented to help curb this problem.
> 
> King Regards,
> 
> Stu Olson
> 
> Phoenix
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
>