An interesting coincidence, perhaps, but today (Saturday the 28th) is National Public Lands Day. See http://www.az.blm.gov/npld_showcase.htm. I knew there was some kind of Public Land exhibit in downtown Phoenix yesterday, but I didn't know why. Now I know.

Chelby wrote earlier:

> Well, I'm going to stop talking now...I know Steve is probably writing
> a huge summary of everything as we speak!:)

Actually, Steve spent the day catching up on some sleep and watching the Ryder Cup matches on TV. And I now see that several of those who attended have already posted some in-depth reports. I thank you all for those, and I'll just add a few observations here.

It's been said already, but I think the most important lesson we learned last night was that by and large, the land management agencies are fine with Geocaching, if we only follow our own rules!

First, get permission. We no longer have any excuse to not do that. Don't know who to ask, or aren't sure what agency has jurisdiction? Ask here on the list server, or try the BLM's Public Lands Information Center in Phoenix (http://azwww.az.blm.gov/PLIC.htm). According to one of the BLM representatives at the meeting last night, that office should have contact information for just about any agency in the state.

We know tribal lands are off-limits (and another thought: even if you got permission from tribal officials to place a cache on their lands, everyone who wanted to hunt it would have to get permission to visit it). Same for archaeological sites (more on that in a minute), and designated wilderness areas. As you've already read, the door was opened that NPS would at least entertain the idea of caches on their lands. We're still lucky enough to have millions of acres of public land in the state that we CAN use. The USFS representative invited cachers to consult with his office on cache placement. I can't quote what he said word-for-word, but he made a point of saying that the rangers probably know about lots of potential cache sites that we don't know about.

We've all been asked to take a more active role in education. Things like more emphasis on staying on trails, leave no trace, cache in trash out, etc. These are things you can mention in your cache descriptions when you place them. I'm planning to write to Jeremy to propose that new subscribers get an email with either a  statement of the rules and policies or at least the links to where those policies can be found. (Could any of you here who are more recent subscribers to geocaching.com refresh my memory what kind of emails, if any, you DO get when you first enroll? Thanks.)

I'd ask all of you to consider reaching out to new cachers when you meet them on the trail or see them log one of your caches. I mentioned this about a week ago, but if you can help spread this around, particularly amongst cachers who perhaps don't visit this mailing list or this web site, it would be very helpful.

Something else we've been asked to do: If you're out in public lands and find, for example, an area where someone has dumped construction materials, or a vandalized area, or something similar, mark a waypoint where the damage is, and contact the responsible agency when you get back as to what you found and where it is. If we can be extra eyes for the agencies, it's to our mutual benefit.

On the situation with the archaeological sites and site stewards. As Ken described in his post, in this one case we appear to have a conflict between one agency that is encouraging people to visit a particular area, and another agency charged with minimizing visitation to that same area. I have visited the site in question and I agree with Ken's arguments in this situation. At the same time, I do recognize that the site stewards are trying to do what they've been charged to do. We will probably have to deal with situations like this on a case-by-case basis, but at least now we can discuss them directly with the appropriate people.

Finally, I'd like to remind everyone here that a lot of people probably learned about azgeocaching.com last night. They may be "stopping by" the listserv or even "settling in". What they read here will probably affect how they perceive Geocachers. You never know who, or even how many, may be reading over your shoulder.

Thanks to all the cachers who participated last night. I think we're seeing Geocaching coming of age in Arizona.

Steve
Team Tierra Buena