>Libby and I went as land stewards to the conservation law enforcement
>seminar held in Prescott Today. Approximately 100-150 officers from Game &
>Fish, and various park rangers from the state attended.While there the
>instructors began discussing Geocaching and how it has had a negative impact
>on some archeological sites. My belief is that they formed these opinions
>based upon the poorly written article in the Arizona Repulsive.

Just going to piggyback off of ken letter here

I have to disagree with ken on were there opinion have come from. I believe it more from shelly talking to the land officers. From the people I talked to it seemed that the officer from the west valley had more negative thing to say than the ones from the east valley.

>During this seminar I was able to speak to the various instructors and
>educate them about our hobby. As a result they gave me some time to speak to
>the group and give an impromptu presentation about Geocaching. I encouraged
>the members to check the website and address any of their concerns through
>the internet. After making my presentation I had several members approach me
>and said that they had changed their minds and do not consider it as serious
>a threat as they had been led to believe. I think I left them with a
>positive impression.

Yeppers he did do that

>The archeological community does have legitimate concerns about placing
>caches in archeological sites.The consensus of the archeologists is that
>placing caches near these sites is extremely damaging. I have learned that
>moving objects, I.e.rocks & stuff while hunting for a cache, can destroy the
>historical significance of the site. There are severe criminal and civil
>penalties that can be assessed if damage is done to these sites. Since there
>are many unpublished archeological sites throughout the state I encouraged
>the members of the Conservation Law Enforcement community to log on the
>Geocaching web site to check there respective areas for caches that may be
>placed, or near unknown archeological sites. If you happen to get an e-mail
>from one of them requesting you remove a cache, please do so. I believe the

>nmajority of them left with a more positive outlook about our hobby.

Here again I do not totally agree with Ken.. We all know of caches out there at are close to archeological site. I believe that the geocaching community needs to police its own. All those they will not be able to charge geocacher with a felony the hider and the finders of the cache on a archeological can be taken to civil court. Were finds can range into the $100K. They would also be able to take all the toys(jeeps ,4x4, GPS) used to find the cache. I suggest if you think a cache is on a site do not log it, instead remove it, contact the cache owner have them remove it. We as cacher can not expect land manager or law enforcement to go though all the trouble of logging into geocaching.com and sending us little notes.

As a side note here the cache on shaw butt is in the archeological site. I was there on Sunday with the manager of the salt river site stewarts. As a matter of fact I have been assigned that site and will remove it if it is still there the next time I check on that site as I been instructed to. (Just toss it in the trash). I know that there are 2 caches in the white tanks that are also so on sites

>Also, I had the opportunity to speak to a Sergeant with the Navajo Nation
>Police Department. He told me that they will not allow any geocaches on
>their lands. If you are caught on their lands without a permit you can be
>arrested. This is just a reminder to please not place any caches on tribal
>lands.

The sergeant had a story to tell about a couple of cacher that wee shot at while looking for a cache. When they reported it to him they were sited for trespassing and told that if the people wanted to kill them they would have.

>It still amazes me how much damage one poorly written and researched
>newspaper article can cause.

While talking to other stewarts there I found out that all Shelly has to do all day is play site stewart. Since her present cause is geocaching STILL we need to start getting permittion for caches. I was also informed that (forget what national forest) that the national forest around Prescott is all for geocaching just like tonto.

BOTTOM LINE DON'T PLACE A CACHE WITH OUT PERMISSION FIRST.

We will be known by the tracks we leave behind