Message

Thanks to the initiative of Regan Smith of Team Evil Fish (and congrats on reaching 200 finds, Regan!), an email correspondence was established between the geocaching.com admins responsible for approving caches in Arizona and our friend Scott Wood at Tonto National Forest. The result of that dialogue is that physical caches in designated wilderness areas will no longer be approved in Arizona. Tonto NF continues to "welcome" (Scott's word) Geocaching elsewhere within its land.

We are also asked when placing caches to be sensitive to areas that may be or contain archaeological sites. If you want to place a cache and are unsure about an area, please contact the Ranger District office responsible for the area to obtain guidance.

Both Scott and the admins recognize that not everyone who hides caches in the state reads this mailing list. At the same time we must remember that the admins are volunteers and certainly don't know our public lands as well as we do. So if you see a new physical cache get approved that you believe has been placed in a designated wilderness area, or if you discover a multi where the last stage turns out to be in wilderness, I suggest you email the hider directly about your concerns. Don't start by posting a "cache should be archived" log entry. If you then can't come to a resolution with the hider and you still believe the placement is inappropriate, at that point you should consider getting geocaching.com involved.

If we employ this bit of self-policing, we should be able to ensure that everyone can continue to enjoy Geocaching on most of the three million acres that comprise the Tonto National Forest.